


Great Responsibility

by EmrysTheMerlin



Series: The Heart of A Hero [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fem Peter Parker - Freeform, Gen, Oblivious Peter Parker, Oblivious Tony Stark, Orphan Peter Parker, Parksborn, Pepperoni, Piper Parker - Freeform, Protective Tony Stark, Ship War, Spideynova - Freeform, Superfamily, Teen Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony adopts Peter, fem!Peter Parker - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 13:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 49
Words: 61,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14812079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmrysTheMerlin/pseuds/EmrysTheMerlin
Summary: Piper Parker has been raised by Tony Stark since she was eleven years old. Spider-girl has been around for a year, training with every Avenger except her father. Nick Fury is convinced he can turn her into the Ultimate Spider-girl. But when he tried to put her with a team what will she do?





	1. Good Morning New York

**Author's Note:**

> This is a transfer of one of my more popular stories from Fanfiction.net. Hoping it goes over well here, if it does I'll start posting the sequel here too.

The sun rose over the already busy streets of New York as a lone figure exited a tall building in the middle of the city. She was tall with dark brown hair and big blue eyes. She waved back toward the building, knowing several people were watching her leave, supposedly to meet up with a friend before school. Once she was out of site of the building she slipped into a deserted alley and moments later Spider-girl was swinging through the skies of her city. She whooped as she practically flew through the sky. She loved it up there. There was only one real drawback. 

“That wall crawling menace must be stopped! It is the duty of every New Yorker to report the activities of the masked miscreants, I will not rest until Spider-girl is behind bars!” Spidey glared at the large screen across Times Square.

“And good morning to you too J. Jonah Loudmouth.” Spider-girl shot a line of webbing across the square swinging across the city with ease. She started almost every morning like this, had started them like this for the past year. But that didn’t mean she felt any better about being yelled at every morning by the hundred foot tall image of a grumpy man who seemed to have nothing better to do than pick on her.

But hey she did the best she could with the time she had, spent almost every morning and evening web slinging and wall crawling, saving the people of New York. She glanced around and swung over to a nearby apartment complex as a cop car skidded down the street. She shot a web across the street, catching the car before it hit the front window of a bakery. The driver of the car, a middle-aged man in a police man, pulled himself out through the window and smiled up at Spider-girl. 

“I’m starting to think Jameson’s wrong about you Spidey.” Piper grinned under her mask and saluted the officer.

“Spread the word chief!” With that she leapt down from the wall and approached the armored truck. She knew who was behind this, the glue everywhere made that pretty obvious for anyone with working eyes. 

“Come on out Trapster! Fourth time’s the charm right?” A tall bald man came out of the back of the car grinning. He was packing what looked like a very large hot glue gun, hooked up to a pack on his back. 

“If it isn’t my favorite spider shaped punching bag. Let’s see if you can do any better this time around.” They had fought each other three times over the past year. Spidey was getting better with the training she was getting at home but she had lost to him all three times. She would do better this time. He pulled his glue gun and fired a stream of the sticky substance at her. She flipped dodging it by millimeters and punched Trapster in the face sending him flying into a nearby car. Piper’s eyes widened as he pulled several glue grenades from god knew where and threw them. She dodged the first two with ease but she didn’t see the third one.

It exploded sending her, and lots of glue, flying into a wall. She pulled hard but she was stuck fast and Trapster was readying his glue gun again. He pulled the trigger just as she shot a web and blocked the guns barrel. Trapster clicked the trigger several more times and Piper could see the glue backing up in the tube that lead to the pack on his back. Spidey closed her eyes as the pack blew. She pulled herself off the wall and leapt down to the pile of glue that encased everything but Trapster’s eyes and nose. She grinned.

“This is when I’m supposed to leave the friendly neighborhood Spider-girl note. Got a pen?” She grinned, Trapster glared at her for a moment before his eyes widened in fear. Piper tensed waiting for that tingly feeling she got when there was danger, she called it her spider-sense. But it never came. She frowned. It didn’t make sense, villains didn’t spook like that when there wasn’t immediate danger in the area, to everyone including the villain. A shadow passed over them and Piper looked up. 

“Wow, Shield helicarier is coming in really low.” 

“Spider-girl.” Piper jumped almost three feet in the air spinning around to find Nick Fury director of Shield standing not two feet from her. 

“Nick Fury! You make a habit of sneaking up on hard working heroes?” Fury narrowed his one eye at her. He gestured around at the mess that was the street, covered in glue. 

“Kid we need to talk.”


	2. Ultimate

“Listen, no one is saying you didn’t stop the bad guy, but look around. Is this the way Captain America would have done it?” Piper flinched at the alias of one of her favorite uncles. He had been helping her train for combat scenarios ever since he had found her practicing in the Avengers tower gym, on the ceiling. But she wasn’t anywhere near his caliber yet. 

“He could have stopped Trapster in five seconds. You took three minutes! With a lot of collateral damage.” Piper rolled her eyes behind her mask. Yeah, Cap could have stopped him sooner he was Captain America after all. She was not Captain America.

“I do a good job.” She was a bit incensed by the critique, she got enough of that from Jameson’s Bugle-tron billboards. Fury nodded.

“Yeah, for a clueless rookie.”

“Hey! That’s not at all true!” Fury’s eye softened slightly and he laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Everyone starts out clueless, even Iron Man back when he was a novice.” Piper almost laughed, she knew that all too well. She still had the video of her dad trying to fly for the first few times and failing miserably. It was hilarious. Fury almost looked like he knew what she was thinking.

“But he learned, eventually. What would you say if I could turn eventually into right now for Spider-girl?” Piper laughed.

“I’ve already got people breathing down my neck about getting better at this, but you and Jameson should get together and talk, you seem to have a lot in common.” She raised her arm to web swing away when Fury stepped forward.

“I’m serious, Piper Parker.” Her eyes bugged out under the mask and she whirled. 

“You know!” He nodded.

“I know everything, super spy remember?” He probably did know everything about her then, her parents mysterious deaths, her aunt lost a few years after that to a heart attack and then her uncle Ben, lost to a car jacker while looking for her because she had run away after they had a fight. Tony Stark had ended up taking her in, she never knew the reason he was listed next as her guardian on her parents will but they had grown into a real family over the past four years. The Avengers had been her family for about a little over a year now. When they had moved into Stark tower everything had gotten weird, but as if the universe had decided that her life wasn’t weird enough she had been bitten by a radioactive spider and well here she was a year later, fighting crime on the streets of New York. 

“With great power comes great responsibility, good words from a good man.” Piper nodded, those were some of the last words she had heard from her uncle Ben. Even after all those years they still stayed with her, they were part of the reason she did what she did, a big part of the reason she was Spider-girl.

“Uncle Ben was the best.”

“It’s been what four years now?” Piper nodded again, she refused to cry though, she didn’t want the lenses of her mask fogging up. 

“Today would have been his birthday.” She never forgot that day, and Tony knew it was important to her so he made sure to put it up on every calendar and ordered a cake from her uncle’s favorite bakery every year. 

“You’ve honored him doing what you do. I’m offering you the chance to do better, to really learn about responsibility.” Piper raised an eyebrow, it barely showed under the mask but she wasn’t convinced that Nick Fury didn’t have every superpower in the book, she knew he would know. 

“Meaning?” He smiled slightly.

“I want to Shield train you to be a better Spider-girl. The Ultimate Spider-girl.” Piper’s eyes narrowed.

“And how Ultimate is ultimate?” Fury smiled slightly as he pulled his gun from his holster. Trapster was making a break for it. Spidey eyed Fury as he pointed his gun straight up and fired once. The blast from the gun, which turned out to be some kind of laser pistol, hit a flag pole on one of the buildings, the pole bounced twice and struck Trapster in the back of the head. 

“That ultimate.” Spidey grinned.

“Sweet! You know I think I’ve seen Auntie Tasha do something like that.” Fury rolled his eye at the childish nickname the teen had given one of his top agents. A phone rang and Piper looked down to her singular pocket, sewn into the suit, by her, specifically so she had a place to hold her phone. 

“Opps,” She said pulling out her phone and ignoring the call from her best friend Mary Jane Watson, “I should probably set my ‘ultimate’ cell phone to vibrate.” Fury frowned slightly as she tucked the phone back in her pocket. 

“Your tech could use a serious upgrade.” He pulled something out of his coat. 

“Here try this next generation web shooter. I had the boys in the lab whip it up.” He slapped it on her wrist. She looked it over. It was about as long as her palm and stood up about an inch and a half from its base. It matched her costume but it was large and felt odd on her wrist as she flexed it.

“Mmm, too big, too clunky.” Fury held out a hand. 

“I didn’t say no.” Fury smiled slightly as she continued to examine the web shooter. 

“With your talent and my training, you could learn to be a better hero. One of the greats.” Spidey smiled then thought of what her dad would say if he even suspected she was a hero let alone talking about joining Shield.

“Thanks for the offer but dad says I shouldn’t talk to strangers. Have a nice life!” With that she swung off towards school. She was going to be late again. 

Spidey didn’t know it but someone else had an eye on her, two in fact though Dr. Otto Octavious and Norman Osborn didn’t quite have her best interests at heart, the way Fury claimed to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again this is a transfer of one of my works from Fanfiction.net. Just to see how I like AO3. Let me know what you think in the comments.


	3. Friends

By some miracle Piper made it to school on time and even had a bit to spare as she stopped by her locker to drop off her backpack and grab the text book she needed for first period. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her best friend in the world walk up to her locker. Mary Jane Watson was the sweetest, and yet somehow scariest person Piper knew and that was saying something considering she lived with two of the world’s most deadly assassins and the Hulk. MJ had been there for her since the beginning, had helped her through her Aunts death and offered to take her in when he Uncle died. They had stayed fast friends through all of it and she was the first person, and one of the only people, Piper had told when Tony had decided to officially adopt her. 

“Piper! I’ve been calling all morning! Where have you been?” Piper grinned sheepishly.

“Umm, bus broke down?” It was true that Piper had once taken public transportation to school, it was quite a way from Avengers Tower to Midtown, let alone Midtown high. Tony had let her pick what school she wanted to go to when he’d taken her in, in the hopes that it would help her retain some sense of normalcy. She chose to continue with the friends she already had. MJ rolled her eyes. 

“Sure it did. Anyway I wanted to show you this!” She held up her phone and started playing one of Jameson’s news casts, one of his anti Spider-girl news casts. Piper frowned as Jameson yelled about ‘that ticking time bomb, Spider-girl’. 

“Doesn’t that jerk ever shut up?” MJ smiled.

“Someday that jerk will give this Journalism student her first job!” Piper’s eyes widened in surprise. 

“What! You wanna work for Jameson?” Of course MJ didn’t know that by ragging on Spider-girl Jameson was also ragging on Piper. Piper hated lying to her oldest friend but it was only to keep her safe. 

“Jameson is the biggest game in town. We gotta be realistic, not all of us have a millionaire for a dad, not all of us can be like Harry.” Piper smiled at her friend knowing that she didn’t hold the fact that she had Tony Stark for a dad against her, mostly because it had never changed her. At that moment Harry Osborn made his way down the hall, high fiving someone from their math class, Piper couldn’t remember his name off the top of her head. He was her other best friend. He’d been a friend when she’d really needed one. 

It had been two years ago when her dad had been kidnapped in Afghanistan, she had been on her way home to Stark Tower where she was staying alone while Pepper did paperwork back at Tony’s Malibu mansion. Her rear tire had popped and she had almost crashed into a tree. She had scrapped up her hands pretty bad on the pavement and broken her glasses, which wasn’t that big of a shame because they were hideous but she was practically blind without them. Lightning flashed as she tried to fix her bike and shivered in the rain. Then the limo had pulled up and Harry had rolled down the window.

“Hey, Piper Parker?” She had nodded.

“Yeah.” He had grinned his million watt smile.

“It’s me, Harry Osborn, you know from school. Get in.” He had hopped out of the limo to help her get her bike into the trunk and had even given her his jacket when she’d shivered in the rain. 

“Thanks.” He had smiled and opened the door for her before sliding back into the limo himself. Norman Osborn had sat across from her looking stoic, she really couldn’t tell if he was angry or not. Piper buckled her seatbelt as the limo drove off. 

“Thanks Harry, you didn’t have to.” His million watt smile was back. 

“Not a problem.” Harry turned to his dad as Piper brushed her soaking shoulder length hair out of her face and pulled it back securing it with the rubber band she always wore for such occasions. 

“Dad, this is the girl I told you about, the one who’s always getting beaten up.” Norman nodded at Piper. 

“Sounds like you could use some friends Piper.” Piper nodded holding her broken glasses in between her fingers.

“That would be really nice sir.” Harry had watched her out of the corner of his eye. 

“And maybe you could be a friend to my Harry, help keep his mind on his studies.” Harry had huffed crossing his arms. 

“I wish you would stop micromanaging my life.”

“Give me reasons not to.” Piper had glanced back and forth between the two. 

“Umm, I just met you both but I think it’s great your dad cares so much.” Norman had raised an eyebrow at her.

“You sound like you speak from experience.” Piper hand nodded. 

“I can’t even really remember my dad, I was three when he died. I’m adopted. But Pepper busts my butt when I get out of line, she’s kind of like my mom.” Norman smiled.

“And Piper’s none the worse for that is she Harry?” Harry had stared at his dad, stunned then grinned at Piper. 

“He’s smiling, my dad is actually smiling. How did you do that?” Piper grinned and shrugged.

“It’s a gift.” They had been practically inseparable since then. About a week after that fateful car ride he had found out who her adoptive father was. She’d been scared that he wouldn’t want to be her friend anymore considering their fathers weren’t on good terms at all. It seemed to make Harry even closer to her though, being the only two high profile rich kids at Midtown high, even if almost no one knew that that’s what Piper was. He had helped her through Tony’s kidnapping and celebrated with her and MJ when he had come home. 

Her day to day life was pretty good, she really couldn’t complain about much if she was honest. Then her spidey-sense went crazy, she flinched. 

“Oh puny Piper!” Except for that. Piper turned and spotted Flash Thompson crushing his fist into lockers. He had been bullying her since she was in preschool. He was the reigning football star so no one stood up to him even though he stuffed her in her locker at least once a week. She wondered what would happen if she turned the tables and took him down once. The locker door slammed closed in her face, she sighed. 

“But if I did that, I’d be everything Jameson ever accused me of.”


	4. The Frightful Four

She was rescued a few minutes later by Stan the janitor and raced off to her first period class. A few hours later she met up with Harry and MJ in the lunchroom. Harry glanced over at her, a bit of worry in his big blue eyes.

“Dude, locker knocker time again? Thompson is such a tool.” Piper nodded as they sat down, Harry next to MJ and Piper across from the pair. She picked up her fork and loaded it with mashed potatoes. 

“If that’s the worst thing that happens to me today, I am definitely coming out ahead.” The fork was halfway to her mouth when her spidey-sense went crazy. It hadn’t gone off like this since the house in Malibu had been under attack by the Mandarin last year. The fork dropped out of her fingers. As the wall behind her exploded Piper leapt forward pulling Harry and MJ with her so they were out of the way of the table as it flipped over them. Three figures walked in, two male one female. Another floated in quaking in fear. Piper recognized the figures at once. Thundra a ruthless warrior woman from an alternate future timeline, Klaw a villain made of living sound, and The Wizard master of high tech gadgets. The man floating helplessly in the air was the principal, Piper realized. But it didn’t make sense, why were they here?

“Students your principal has something to say.” The poor man shook as he was floated in front of the students. 

“Everyone the school is now under the control of… of…” Thundra finished his sentence for him. 

“The frightful four!” The room was silent for a moment before MJ always the perfectionist piped up.

“There’s only three of you.” The principal came flying across the room, slamming into the wall above the vending machines. That was right the Trapster was supposed to be a member of the frightful four but Piper had already caught him. The Wizard floated further into the room. 

“Before the Trapster was captured he learned that Spider-girl attends this school. Unless she gives herself up, we will tear this place apart brick by brick.” Piper heard some idiot in the crowd cheer. Wizard frowned. 

“Very well then Klaw, give them a demonstration.” Klaw stepped forward and pointed his hand, the one that was actually a sonic blaster, at the roof above a large group of students. The blaster resounded and the roof trembled sending pieces of masonry raining down on the students. Piper’s fists curled. She couldn’t do anything, not yet. Not without putting everyone she cared about in even more danger than they were in now. Wizard floated in her direction.

“So, who is our mysterious wall crawler?” Piper glanced around, thanking all her lucky stars that no one was even glancing her way. 

“A teacher? A student? A cafeteria lady? Hmmm. They seem reluctant to talk. Klaw, make them listen to reason.” The sound villain activated his noise cannon again only this time it spread over most of the whole cafeteria. Piper clutched her ears trying not to scream. She had a slight healing factor, she would be fine, it was everyone else she was worried about. Klaw moved his blaster on to another section of the room and Piper couldn’t take it anymore.

“Leave them alone!” MJ grabbed her arm.

“Piper, no!” Wizard smiled down at her.

“Defiantly not Spider-girl.” Thundra stepped forward menacingly.

“I’ll crush the runt!” MJ stepped back slightly as Wizard floated over towards Piper. Wizard shook his head. 

“No, don’t crush her. Make an example of her. Klaw, go ahead.” Piper pushed MJ out of the way as sound slammed into her like a wall. She screamed and fell to her knees. Her ears rang and her head pounded, partially because of her spidey-sense but mostly because of the noise that was currently splitting her skull. She felt blood trickling from her ear. 

“Stop! Stop, I’ll talk!” She just needed the noise to stop. The sound stopped and Piper pulled herself up on one of the tables, right in front a tray. Her brain was working on overdrive despite the ringing in her ears. 

“Well, you have something to say little girl?” Piper caught her breath, wiping the blood off her face with her sleeve. 

“Listen up. Everyone needs to hear this!” Piper paused for effect, then snatched the tray in front of her and took aim at Wizard.

“Food Fight!” She threw the tray hard, it smacked into the Wizard sending him spinning. Everyone cheered and grabbed the nearest article of food before throwing it at a member of the frightful four. Piper rolled under the table and headed for the nearest pillar before crawling up it. She popped open one of the ceiling tiles and crawled inside. 

“How the hell did they find out!?” She pulled off her blue button up and her white tank top. She glanced down at her costume and saw something sticking to her armpit. She yanked and nearly tore the costume. It was small black and green. It was a tracer. 

“Fury was right, I have a lot to learn about responsibility.” She whispered as she crushed the tracer between her fingers.


	5. VS

Piper slipped on her mask and back into the room, climbing silently down the pillar she had used to get into the ceiling. She spotted Klaw pointing his blaster hand at a group of terrified students.

“Hey! Didn’t your mother ever teach you to play nice?!” She shot a line of webbing catching Klaws blaster and redirected the blast so that it hit Klaw in the face. Disoriented he staggered until he ran smack into the pillar he was standing next to. Spider-girl giggled.

“I bet it stinks to be you, then again it could be this suit. I haven’t had a chance to wash it in a week.” Spidey glanced around and spotted Thundra menacing a tall boy with glasses. The arachnid leapt at the warrior woman.

“Hey little miss Muffet, I heard you’re scared of spiders!” She kicked Thundra and caught the boy before setting him down with a grin. She thought she heard Wizard say something but she was too busy dealing with an angered Thundra to pay attention to him. Klaw had recovered and he and Thundra were attempting to land a hit but Spidey was too quick for them. Wizard levitated several tables and prepared to throw them at her but she was ready. As Klaw fried again she shot another line of webbing and pulled hard redirecting it to slam into Thundra who went flying into the counter. She then swung hard and smashed Klaw into the wall of tables Wizard had surrounded himself with. As Klaw collapsed Wizard threw the tables at Spidey. She ducked then flipped up onto one of them leaping from one to another. 

“Looks like I’m off to see the Wizard!” She flipped and leapt from table to table before grabbing one of them with both web shooters and slamming it and him into the wall. She grinned under her mask.

“Take that!” She heard a cracking noise behind her and turned to see Thundra pulling herself up her hair dripping with mashed potatoes. Piper giggled a bit.

“You know that is a great look for you Thundy.” Thundra roared and shattered the counter. Spidey leapt up and shot two lines of webbing but before they could latch onto Thundra she grabbed them and smacked Spidey into the ground. It hurt like hell and the force of it knocked the wind out of Spidey. Thundra rushed forward and MJ looked scared but determined as she kicked a plate of miraculously intact green jello into Thundra’s path. Thundra slipped and slammed into a nearby pile of tables and chairs. MJ grinned and pointed her phones camera at the fallen villain. 

“This’ll be my first front page story.” Before she could say anything else a wave of sound knocked the phone out of her hand. Harry rushed over to defend her as Spidey began to stir. 

“Leave her alone!” Spidey pulled herself up just in time to see Harry get knocked back and out by Klaw.

“This school is full of would be heroes.” Spidey leapt and kicked Klaw in the jaw knocking him down and out. Spidey whirled and grabbed Thundra’s wrist as she tried to punch the arachnid. 

“Wanna dance Thundy?” Spidey quickly wrapped the warrior from head to toe in webbing listening to her muffled cursing. The students were cheering but several of them screamed as they were lifted off the ground. This time Spidey heard Wizard as he seemed to mutter to himself. 

“Floating hostages, Spider-girl won’t dare attack.” Spidey grabbed Thundra, who was still struggling to get out of the webbing, and made to throw her at Wizard who yelped and gathered the hostages in front of himself. Spidey dropped the struggling warrior and dove under Wizard and the teens. 

 

“You should always make sure your back door is locked!” She said and shot two web lines catching Wizard in the back and yanking, smacking him into a pile of tables and chairs. She swung up to the ceiling as Wizard pulled himself out of the pile. Spidey kicked him in the face sending him flying out the double doors of the cafeteria. Spidey’s momentum carried her out the doors after Wizard. She paused to take a breath. 

“Spidey?” Spider-girl turned and saw Flash Thompson walling down the hall. 

“Oh wow it really is you! I’m your biggest fan!” He pointed to his shirt, which was emblazoned with Spider-girls mask. 

“Let me help you!” Spidey grinned slightly under her mask. She had been taught how to work revenge after all, she lived with the Black Widow after all. 

“Sure.” Spidey opened a nearby locker and gestured for Flash to step inside. 

“Go right ahead. Wait here, when I signal you leap out and we’ll surround them.” Flash grinned and did as she told him. She closed the door and stifled a giggle. She knew it was immature but she couldn’t help it. She heard the Frightful Four coming and leapt up to the ceiling pulling a grate up and slipping into the vent behind it. The three members of the villain team gathered underneath her as she heard police sirens approaching. 

“We aren’t being paid to fight cops.” They were being paid to fight her, by whom? The villains ran and Spidey quickly made her way back to the section of ceiling where she had left her clothes.


	6. What Next

Piper climbed out of the ceiling in the deserted hallway and raced back into the cafeteria. MJ was cradling Harry’s head. Piper knelt down next to them. 

“Harry?” He didn’t stir. Piper buried her head in her hands. 

“This is all my fault.” She heard footsteps and looked up to see Norman Osborn quick step up to them. What was she supposed to say? She couldn’t think of anything but her mouth didn’t seem to get the memo.

“Mr. Osborn, I… I’m sorry.” Norman picked Harry up and began to carry him towards the ambulance.

“Why apologize Piper? What could you have done?” Piper looked down at her feet. 

The intercom came on announcing that students should report to their homeroom classes until further notice. Piper stuck her hands in her pockets and trudged down the hall. 

“Worst day ever.” She heard someone tap on the inside of a locker as she passed it. Flash whispered.

“Spidey? I’m ready!” She felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. 

“Ok. That helps a little.” School was released early that day so that repairs could begin on the cafeteria. Piper’s phone buzzed as she searched the parking lot for the black sedan that Happy always picked her up from school in. She glanced down at it and grabbed MJ’s arm. The text read,

‘I’m at Belleview Hospital and it’s really boring here. Room 22.’ It was from Harry. 

“MJ! Come on we’re going to see Harry.” Piper dragged MJ to the sedan and yanked open the door. MJ grinned and hopped in. Piper slid in after her and grinned leaning forward to talk to Happy Hogan, Tony Stark’s, and her personal driver.

“Happy take us to Belleview hospital!” Happy’s eyebrows rose.

“Is everything alright Miss Parker?” Piper rolled her eyes, he still wouldn't call her Piper.

“Yeah we’re ok. We’re going to go visit Harry!” Happy nodded and drove. Soon they arrived at the hospital and were escorted to Harry's room. 

“Hey hero, how are you feeling?” Harry smiled rubbing his head. 

“There’s still a bit of ringing in my ears but they say I’ll be fine in a few days.” MJ grinned and hugged Harry. They were adorable when they got along, which wasn’t often. Norman Osborn turned to Piper.  
“Strangest thing Piper, those villains seemed to believe Spider-girl goes to your school. Do you know anything about that?” Piper laughed slightly and joked.

“Yeah I think she sits next to me in French class.” Norman raised an eyebrow and Piper rubbed the back of her neck. 

“No sir I don’t know anything about that.” MJ nodded in agreement and Norman nodded slowly before turning and leaving. The three of them talked about who spidey could be for a while. Happy tapped her on the shoulder after a few hours talking and laughing with her friends. 

“Your father called he wants you home.” Piper sighed and nodded. She turned back to Harry. 

“I gotta go, dad wants me home. MJ you want a ride?” Marry Jane shook her head.

“Nah, I’m gonna take the bus. Can’t have you getting grounded because you were late.” Piper rolled her eyes.

“That was one time.” They laughed and said goodbye to Harry with promises that they would be back to visit him tomorrow. Piper slipped into the back of the sedan. Piper arrived at the main floor of Avengers tower to the sound of J. Jonah Jameson ranting on the television.

“In a shocking betrayal of the justice system she claims to uphold Spider-girl today led known super criminals in an attack on innocent school children. Believe me ladies and gentlemen it gives this reporter less pleasure than I imagined to say I told you so. It is the opinion of daily bugle communications that the police should issue a warrant for Spider-girl’s arrest! And that nothing short of deadly force should be employed in the pursuit of Spider-girl!” Natasha nudged Steve and jerked a thumb at the doorway where Piper was practically steaming. Steve quickly turned off the television entirely. Tony made an annoyed noise.

“Hey I was watching that!” Piper rolled her eyes and set her backpack down with a thump to get her dad’s attention. Tony leapt to his feet and rushed over to her. 

“Are you ok!? By the time we heard what was going on it was already over! Did they hurt you?” Piper smiled slightly as every member of the avengers watched the pair. Natasha’s eyes zeroed in on the spot of blood on her sleeve from where she had whipped her bleeding ear. Piper caught her eyes and shook her head slightly. 

“I’m fine, those psychos never touched me. They were just after Spider-girl.” Tony frowned deeply. 

“I’m starting to think Jameson is right about her. Leading a group of super villains into a school! That is just asking for trouble, for someone to get hurt!” Piper flinched slightly but Tony didn’t notice. Steve did and looked at Tony reproachfully. Piper shook her head at him. This was part of why she didn’t want her dad to know. He would panic. Tony seemed to notice that something was wrong. 

“Are you sure you’re ok Pipes?” Piper nodded and sighed. 

“Yeah dad, I’m just tired. I’m gonna go to my room and do my homework.” Tony patted her on her shoulder as she turned back to the elevator. She went up two more levels to her own floor and made her way to her bed room. She didn’t even bother turning on the lights as she threw her bag across the room its contents flying everywhere. She sat down on the bed and felt the tears stinging her eyes. She tried her hardest to do what was right, to help people but everyone called her the villain, even her dad. Piper looked down at the floor and the eyes of her mask stared back up at her.

But they’re right. You can’t even protect your friend, and you led them to the school in the first place. And if you can’t even protect the people you care about how are you gonna be one of the greats. They can train you all they want but it won’t do any good if you’re too thick to do anything right. There was a knock at her door and Natasha stepped inside holding a piece of cake. 

“Hey kiddo. I know you aren’t ok, what really happened?” Piper picked up her mask and explained the day to Natasha, everything starting with Fury’s sales pitch for Shield. When she was done Natasha looked her over.

“What do you think you should do? Shield has made quite a few heroes over the years, look at Hawkeye, but this has to be your decision.” Piper nodded staring down at the mask in her hands. Natasha hugged her with one arm before setting down the slice of cake on her desk and leaving her to her own thoughts. 

She sat there for a long while before making her decision. She set the mask down and began to change into her costume.


	7. Welcome To SHEILD

Piper snuck out of the tower through her window and climbed up to the top of it muttering to herself as she did.

“Roll out the welcome mat Shield, Spideys come a calling!” She leapt from building to building as she made her way up to the top of the empire state building. 

“Fury’s right, with his help I can be better. I’m through with this lonely loser routine.” It was starting to rain as Spider-girl raced up the building the helicarrier in her sights. 

“It’s time to show the big boys what the Ultimate Spider-girl can do!” She leapt from the top of the building and shot a line at the helicarrier and almost screamed as the web line ran out before it ever touched the helicarrier. She swore as she began freefalling. She pulled the web shooter Fury had given her out of the small pocket of her costume.

“Fury’s tech boys better be on their game or I’m street pizza.” She fired at the helicarrier and watched with bated breath until it hooked on and she swung up using the momentum from her fall to make it up to the top of the large ship. She whooped all the way. She landed on the side of the helicarrier and looked down at her wrist.

“Ok maybe it’s not too clunky.” She was interrupted by a shrill alarm sounding around her.

‘Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!’ Spidey was forced to leap out of the way as several gun turrets opened fire at her.

“Oh come on! This isn’t a carnival game! Fury should have been expecting me!” Having no other choice she began firing at the guns and knocking them down one right after the other. The recoil on the new web shooter was astounding but it also took down the guns in one hit. She wasn’t looking where she was going and slipped off the edge of the carrier. She shouted in surprise and quickly fired a line as she fell pulling herself back up onto the top of the carrier only to be surrounded by guns all of which aimed laser sights at her. Piper froze, knowing that if she moved even an inch she was dead. Then she spotted Nick Fury who clicked what looked suspiciously like a key fob. The guns retracted and Piper pulled off her mask, revealing messy brown hair and shining blue eyes. 

“Your friendly neighborhood Ultimate Spider-girl, reporting for duty sir!” Fury nodded.

“Good. Let’s hope you survive the experience.” Piper paled a bit and followed Nick Fury into the helicarrier.


	8. Training

Spider-girl waited in the darkened room as Nick Furys voice echoed around her. 

“This exercise will gauge your efficiency against superior numbers, the goal is to disable all attackers. You have sixty seconds. Oh and just so you know, Captain America did it in ten.” Piper frowned under her mask. Fury really needed to stop comparing her to her Uncle Steve, she was good but she was no Captain America. She leapt as the robots attacked. The first one missed but the next one caught her around the middle. The rest of the bots dog piled on top of her. She heaved and managed to throw off the robots before diving into the fray. Just to show off a bit she started to pull out the moves that Natasha had taught her, mixing it in with the heavy attacks Steve had shown her. Unknown to her several people were watching her fight. 

Fury smiled slightly as the top of one of the robots flew off and landed on Spider-girl’s head. A group of teens watched on a separate screen. A tall blonde in a yellow mask, a buff African American wearing a pair of shades and a girl in a full body white cat suit with a long ponytail all frowned at the mix matched style of fighting. 

“I completed this exercise in less than twenty seconds.” The blonde stated.  
“I finished in under eighteen.” The buff teen bragged. The girl in the cat suit narrowed her yellow eyes.

“There is absolutely no discipline to her fighting style, it looks like she mashed six different styles together! But Fury says she’s good for the team.” The girl sounded suspicious. A boy raced up to the group, he wore what appeared to be a gold bucket with a red star at the forehead. He glared at the screen. 

“Why is Fury testing a new candidate!? I didn’t approve this!” The cat girl laughed. 

“Look who thinks he’s still in charge, that is adorable.” The bucket headed teen glared and stepped closer to the screen.

“If Fury thinks I’m gonna lead that lame-o in battle.” The buff teen interrupted him slapping him on the back.

“Yeah, in your dreams you’re the team leader.” The blonde stepped forward looking thoughtful. 

“She is rough around the edges, but she has potential. Her moves seem slightly familiar but I cannot place why.” The cat girl nodded stepping up to the rest of the group.

“Yeah, but really she named herself Spider-girl.” The buff teen looked over at her raising an eyebrow.

“What else could she have named herself?” The cat girl shrugged. 

“I don’t know, something that doesn’t scream ‘Hi I have low self esteem and identify with bugs.” The blonde shook his head. 

“You know what they say about a book and its cover dude.” The girl glared at him. 

“Dude, I will clean this helecarrier for a month if she makes it.” The boys raised a collective eyebrow. 

“Toilets too?” The blonde asked and the cat girl nodded. 

“Toilets too.” They sealed the bet with a round of high fives as Spider-girl finished off the last robot. 

Spidey panted lightly as she threw aside the last bit of robot. A hologram of Nick Fury appeared next to her. She grinned under her mask.

“Next!” Fury nodded. 

“Web parachute test. Red button. See you tomorrow.” Piper frowned.

“Parachute test? What..” But before she could get any farther the floor under her opened and she screamed as she dropped out of the helecarrier towards the city below. She jabbed at the SHEILD web shooter and almost cried with relief as she found the right button and a parachute made of webbing few out of her web shooter. She sighed looking down at the city below.

“Well that could have been more embarrassing.”


	9. Family Bonding

Piper barely made it to school that day. It wasn’t that surprising that they hadn’t closed the school down for the week. Super villains were a regular occurrence now a days. New York had gotten really good at recovering from their attacks. The school looked like nothing had happened except the cafeteria was cleaner than usual. The school day was boring and Mary Jane had rehearsal for her play after school so Piper decided to web swing over to the hospital. She changed in the alley next to the entrance and hurried inside. She was escorted up to Harry’s room by one of Norman Osborn’s hired security guards, he’d been around for a while. He stopped at the door and opened it for her.

“Thanks Frank.” Harry looked up from the tablet in his hands. Piper smiled as he grinned at her.

“Hey hero, I brought you something from school.” Harry grinned wider.

“Cheerleaders?” Piper laughed and plopped a couple of books down on the table next to Harry. 

“Sorry, homework.” Harry frowned slightly looking at the books as Norman walked in. He smiled at them and placed a hand on Piper’s shoulder. 

“Piper has your best interests at heart. She’s a true friend. How about a ride home Piper?” Piper smiled at Norman and nodded.

“That would be great, thank you Mr. Osborn.” Harry waved at Piper as she left behind his dad and Piper grinned as she waved back. Avengers Tower wasn’t far from the hospital. Piper needed a nap before she trained with her Uncle Steve for the day. Unfortunately the universe was against her having a nap as Captain America met her at the doors to Avengers Tower as she waved goodbye to Norman Osborn. He was dressed in civilian clothes, a captain America t-shirt Piper had given him for his birthday which she had been amused to discover was on July fourth. Steve ruffled Piper’s short brown hair as they made their way to the elevator. Once they were safely inside it Steve turned to Piper.

“Are you sure you’re ok? I saw the blood on your sleeve yesterday but when I went to talk to you last night you were gone and there was an uneaten piece of cake on your desk.” Piper nodded. 

“Well I took care of the cake when I got home, from SHEILD.” She whispered the last two words but Steve heard her. He frowned slightly. 

“Why were you at SHEILD?” Piper sighed as the elevator let them off on her floor. 

“Well, Nick Fury kind of offered to SHEILD train me, to help with this whole hero thing. Not that you, Auntie Tasha and Uncle Clint haven’t been amazing since you guys found out but it was my fault that those psychos ended up at my school. My fault that one of my best friends is in the hospital.” Steve put a hand on her shoulder. 

“Everyone makes mistakes. We learn from them, learn to be a better hero.” Piper nodded and grinned.

“You sound just like Fury. That was part of his sales pitch. He even brought up dad when he was starting out. It’s pretty hilarious actually. Remind me to show you the video at some point.” Steve smiled slightly. Piper made her way down the hall. 

“I’ll meet you in the gym, I gotta throw my suit in the wash and change into my workout clothes. Steve nodded and Piper disappeared down the hall. Natasha stepped out of the shadows. Steve was still getting used to the assassin doing this and only jumped a little when she spoke. 

“She’s a good kid. I just hope she sticks with it, I don’t think she’s gonna like Fury’s plan.” Steve raised an eyebrow at the red head. 

“What do you mean?” Natasha smiled.

“You’ll see. You’ll see.” Steve rolled his eyes at the woman as she walked off towards the elevator. He made his way to the gym that he, Clint, Natasha, Bruce and Thor had built into one of the many spare rooms on Piper’s floor. There was a lot of equipment only she and Thor could get to. There was an obstacle course that ran up one of the walls and across the ceiling. Piper arrived a few minutes later and they started sparring. 

A few hours later they were both sweating as he had her take a few whacks at one of the reinforced punching bags he used. She put a hole in it after about thirty hits. She grinned at him and shot a line of webbing across the room grabbing their water bottles. She pulled his out of the webbing with ease and tossed it to him. He glanced over at her wrist and didn’t see her web shooter. He raised an eyebrow as she drank deeply from her Iron Man water bottle. She had a lot of Avengers themed things. Tony had gone a bit overboard when it came to merchandise. But it was all insanely popular and it paid for the upkeep of the team so it worked out rather well.

“Invisible web shooter?” Piper grinned and tapped her wrist. A device appeared, it was red and black like her costume. 

“SHEILD does come with some perks. I’ve been figuring out what all it does. I found camouflage mode when I took it off my costume so I could wash the costume.” She was interrupted a panel on the wall beeped and Piper walked over to it. It was a phone call. She answered it and almost spit water as Nick Fury popped up on the screen. 

“Please tell me you encrypted this call.” She choked out coughing on the water. 

“Of course. I need you up at the helecarrier.” With that he simply hung up. Piper rolled her eyes and turned to Steve who was smiling knowingly. 

“Well looks like duty calls.” Steve patted her on the shoulder. 

“Good luck Spidey.” Piper grinned and left to go change and get to the helecarrier.


	10. Motoring

Piper arrived on the Helicarier about twenty minutes later and was met on deck by Nick Fury himself. They made their way down the hall and Piper nodded awkwardly at a few of the other people they passed. She grinned under her mask when she saw a familiar face. 

Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, grinned lightly when he spotted his kind of niece walking down the hall with Director Fury. Natasha had told him that their sort of niece was joining SHEILD. He paused in the hall and grinned at her. 

“Hey Spidey! How’s my favorite Baby Bug?” He couldn’t tell if she was grinning or not under her mask but Fury rolled his eye as several SHEILD agents walked past staring at the trio. 

“I’m pretty good Unc… I mean Hawkeye.” Clint laughed and clapped Piper on the shoulder. 

“You can still call me Uncle Clint if you want to Kiddo. Have fun!” He walked away and Fury sighed. This particular recruitment was going to make life much more interesting. He turned to a door on the wall placing his eye up to the scanner. He stepped back as the door opened. 

“Get in here and don’t touch anything!” Piper raised an eyebrow under her mask and stepped into the room curious as to what Fury wouldn’t want her touching. She paused as she spotted the contents of the room. It was better than the R and D department at Stark Towers, gadgets filled almost every available table space as men in giant mech suits pulled straight out of a sci-fi movie walked around taking notes. She could hardly contain her excitement. There were quite a few inventions here that grabbed her attention but the one that caught her interest most was a very iron man looking exo suit that sprouted long mechanical arms and began to climb up the wall next to it. Spider-girl turned to look at the schematics that were laid out on the table but before she could Fury put a hand on her shoulder and led her to the other side of the room. 

“Yo, doc meet the new kid. Spider-girl meet our resident tech genius Dr. Curt Connors.” Spidey grinned under her mask and held out her right hand to shake the doctor’s left hand. 

“Always nice to meet a fellow genius.” Belatedly she noticed he didn’t have a left hand. She was about to pull back sheepishly when he grinned and pulled his hand out of his sleeve to shake hers vigorously. 

“A pleasure! I’ve been following your carrier closely, very impressive.” Spidey grinned.

“You and I are gonna get along great doc, I can tell.” Doctor Connors kept talking as they walked around the room checking out all the cool tech. He handed her a second web shooter and she smiled attaching it to her other wrist. 

“Even before Director Fury approached you about joining SHIELD I had my team develop an array of Spider-girl inspired weaponry.” Spider-girl raised her eyebrow at Fury.

“And if I’d said no?” Fury smiled slightly. 

“Not really an option kid.” Spidey rolled her eyes and went back to examining the second web shooter. There were a few new buttons on it. Doctor Connors grinned and showed her how to turn on the camouflage mode, she was too polite to tell him she had already figured it out. Spidey grinned.

“Oh yeah I had it in camo mode, but then I couldn’t find it.” There was a pause of silence and Spidey sighed.

“It’s called a joke, don’t you people ever smile?” Doctor Connors smiled slightly and walked over to a covered piece of machinery. 

“Over here we have something I think you’ll be particularly interested in.” Spidey grinned again and stepped forward. 

“I reserve the right to be awestruck.” Her spidey-sense went off and she yanked her hand back just in time to avoid getting struck by a baton. She looked up into the face of one of her least favorite Shield agents. Phil Coulson had been pretty cool up until he faked his own death right before the battle of New York, she and the Avengers had discovered he was still alive when he had shown up in the kitchen of Avengers Tower to talk to Natasha and Clint about their relationship. She glared at him from under her mask.

“Director Fury I’ve never questioned you when it came to the others,” Spidey raised an eyebrow. What others could Coulson be talking about, she didn’t sign up to be part of a team. Coulson continued before she could ask.

“But we are dealing with a complete wild card. Daily Bugle communications calls Spider-girl a threat to public safety.” That just made her glare intensify.

“But I’m so sweet and huggable! Plus I’ve got so much teaching me how to be an amazing person it’s not even funny.” Coulson glared at her. Fury turned to Coulson. 

“Spider-girl is my responsibility. That’s what she’s here to learn, responsibility.” Coulson looked her up and down again and folded his baton back into a small pen sized tube. 

“We’ll see.” With that he walked away. Piper glared after him before turning back to the covered machine. Doctor Connors motioned for her to continue and she pulled the cover off of the machine revealing a motorcycle with a large red spider emblem that stretched from the front of the bike to the back wheel. Piper raised a slightly confused eyebrow.

“We call it the Spider Cycle!” He looked quite proud of himself and Piper really didn’t want to hurt his feelings but she had a very important question. 

“Um not to sound ungrateful or anything but what do I need with a motorcycle? I can get anywhere with, ya know thwip thwip.” Piper made a mock web slinging motion. Doctor Connors smiled slightly.

“I calculate you can make it from Eightieth Street to thirty fourth in three point seven minutes, while using what I’m guessing is fairly expensive webbing and at maximum muscle strength.” Piper rubbed the back of her neck, a bit self conscious at being treated like a science curiosity, not that she didn’t hear that all the time from her oblivious adoptive father. 

“Well yeah that sounds about right.” Doctor Connors nodded clearly pleased he had gotten his math right. Fury grinned slightly.

“The Spider Cycle can make it in a minute and a half. That is if you aren’t scared thwipless to climb on.” Piper had lived in a house full of men long enough to know a challenge when she heard one. She motioned Nick Fury aside and swung a leg over the bike. She looked down at the holo screen that popped up the second she placed both hands on the handles.

“And the started is…?” She pushed the red and blue swirling emblem in the center of the dark red screen and the bike took off without warning, Spider-girl clinging to it as it barreled out of the lab and down the hall. She just barely managed to avoid the people in the halls including Hawkeye whose eyes widened as he saw who was clinging to the out of control motorcycle.

“It's ok. I just have to find the brakes.” She pulled on trigger she felt under her fingers on the left handle of the bike as she careened towards a dead end corridor. But instead of stopping the bike shot a bolt of light from somewhere near her knee and the wall in front of her disintegrated. She screamed as she went hurtling out of the opening. She tried to take a deep breath as the air rushed around her.

“It’s ok, I’ll just pop another web parachute and…” She tried to do just that and shot only a line of webbing that missed the Helicarier by practically a mile. 

“Ok. Now I’m scared thwipless!”


	11. Meeting The Others

Piper screamed holding onto the bike for dear life. She was too high up to swing onto any buildings and just watch the bike fall. Besides that might put some pedestrians in danger, and her gathered momentum was likely to rip her arms off. So no good prospects. The screen in front of her lit back up and displayed Nick Fury’s face.

“Kid.” Piper smiled under her mask but only a little.

“Hey Nick, bit busy falling to my death right now, can I call you later?” He rolled his eye at her.

“That button with the web icon, punch it and hang on.” Spidey sighed.

“Well not much else to do, might as well.” She slammed a finger into the web icon on the screen and the bike shot out two lines of web, well now she was uncontrollably careening forward instead of falling. This was slightly better. Before she could ask Nick began explaining the gizmo that had saved her from a very messy accident on the sidewalk below. 

“That’s the web track feature. Internal GPS targets the best places to shoot it.” 

“As awesome and amazing as that is I am rapidly running out of room here.” Nick Fury smiled. 

“Hit the thrust button.” Piper raised an eyebrow but there wasn’t much she could do but obey. She slammed her finger into the button that looked like the cheesy flames painted on sports cars and held on tighter as the bike rocketed off of the web-line onto a building where it continued forward with no problems at all. Piper was incredulous.

“You know this is impossible right?” The screen in front of her flickered and Fury’s face was replaced by the face of Dr. Conner’s. 

“I’ve engineered the bike to ride smoothly at any angle. Try it again.” Piper smiled and jumped the bike from the building she was on over to a nearby Bugeltron billboard. She dragged the back wheel of the bike across the screen leaving a burn in the shape of a curly villain mustache before jumping the bike back over to another building. She knew it was immature but it felt pretty good, though she’d be getting an earful from Uncle Steve later. But she didn’t have a whole lot of time to linger on that as the bike continued to run as if it had a mind of its own racing down the side of a building and out into traffic. 

“What’s the matter with you, kid, you act like you’ve never driven before.” Piper laughed sheepishly as she steered the bike around cars and up the underside of an overpass. 

“I don’t even have a permit. Think about it for a minute! I get driven almost everywhere, besides its New York. Who needs a car?” She just managed to leap over a school bus full of kids before she saw the construction site. 

“Oh come on!” The screen on the bike flashed and Piper glanced around ensuring that there wasn’t anyone in the vicinity to be hurt if the bike hit the large truck that she was rapidly approaching. There was no one there so she flipped off the bike into the air, intending to land safely on the ground. However, something swooped out of thin air and caught her bridal style.

 

“Hey!” Whoever this boy was he was wearing a blue suit with gold accents and what appeared to be a golden bucket on his head. 

“Put me down Bucket head!” Spidey would have bet money the boy under the bucket was rolling his eyes even if she couldn’t hear it. 

“Chill out Preschool, we’ll take it from here.” Spidey looked down as she realized he’d said we. There were indeed other teens on the scene now, a girl in a white cat suit leaped from the top of the truck to the motorcycle and steering it away from the collision as a boy in yellow lifted the truck out of her way. A boy in a green skintight suit with a black dragon on the chest and a gold mask hiding his face stepped forward and placed his foot on the front tire of the bike and smiled up at them as the boy in the bucket set Spidey back on her feet. He landed next to the others.

“Look I appreciate the hand but I honestly didn’t need it, I had this under control. Who are you guys anyway?” Spidey said brushing herself off. The boy in green placed his fist against the open palm of his other hand then he bowed slightly.

“Iron fist, Namaste. Kung Fu master with fist of, well, iron.” Before Spidey could talk the other girl stepped up to her guiding the bike. 

“White Tiger, acrobatic ninja with steel claws and cat powers.” Spidey nodded slightly and opened her mouth to speak but the girl, Whit Tiger, just kept taking. 

“The big guy here is Luke Ca…” He interrupted her. 

“Power man, if she calls herself Spidergirl I’m calling myself Power man. It’s cool and doesn’t scream I have low self-esteem.” Spidey couldn’t help but feel like she’d been insulted but she let him continue as the others had.

“Super strength and bulletproof skin.” White Tiger sounded sarcastic as she spoke again. 

“Ok Power Man.” Spidey nodded at the girl.

“And I’ve already met Captain bucket head.” Though she couldn’t see his eyes she could tell by his voice that his eyes were narrowed under his bucket. 

“Name’s Nova. The human rocket.” There was an awkward silence. 

“Well, ok… Nice to meet you guys and all but I gotta get this bike back to SHIELD.” Power man grinned slightly.

“Small world.” Glancing over at Nova Spidey saw he was wearing a grin that could only be described as shit eating. 

“Oh no.”


	12. Better That Way

“No. No. No. Nien. Nei. Het. No. I did not sign up to be part of a team.” Agent Coulson sighed rubbing the bridge of his nose. 

“It’s not a team it’s a program.” Spidey didn’t let him finish.

“Don’t even try to feed me that bullshit. I know how well your team-ups go. And don’t even try to tell me I’m wrong. You of all people should know what happens when SHIELD gets heroes together.” With that she turned on her heel and stalked off towards the elevator. As she left the room she heard White Tiger shouting happily. 

“Yes! No toilets for the Tiger!” Spidey shook her head, she really didn’t want to know. She stormed up to the elevator and slammed her hand into the button. After a moment the doors opened and Piper almost balked at the sight of Nick Fury standing in the elevator. 

“Ummm. I’ll take the next one.” A moment passed and the doors didn’t close. Piper peeked into the elevator and saw that Fury was holding the button so the doors wouldn’t close. Sighing she stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the hanger. There was an awkward silence.

“So you’re leaving then?” Piper nodded. 

“Yeah and you should know perfectly well why. Things like this, teams like this, they always come at a price. They never start off well, and someone always gets hurt. And someone else has to live with it.” Fury nodded slowly. 

“True. You’d know that more than most. After the Battle of New York, you almost lost everything again. I can understand that feeling.” Piper sighed. 

“Look I don’t know your story, doubt anyone really does, so maybe you can. If so, you should know exactly why I’m saying no. They all seem cool, even the bucket head. But I won’t be responsible for their lives. If they wanna risk their lives that’s their call. But I can’t be responsible for them.” The doors opened and Piper stepped out but before she could walk away Fury grabbed her elbow. 

“Kid take some time to think about this alright. These kids are completely new to this. They need someone who’s been at this a while, who’s got the training and experience and mentors you have. Just think about it kid. You lot could be the next team of greats, the next Avengers.” Piper paused for a moment before she tapped the web shooter on the wrist causing it to reappear. She pulled it off her wrist and handed it back to Fury who shook his head at it. He let go of her elbow. 

“Good luck kid. Let me know if you change your mind.” Piper nodded and walked off down the hallway and out to the hanger. One of the technicians opened the bay doors for her as they flew past one of the taller skyscrapers and Piper swung off. She was a few buildings away when she finally stopped and sat down on the ledge of an office building to watch the Hellicarrier fly away. She sighed to herself.

“Come on Spidey, buck up. You are only responsible for you. It’s better that way.” She tried to convince herself of that as the Hellicarrier flew farther into the distance. She had saw what being a team was about, saw it every day living with the Avengers. So she saw how it affected everyone, there were good things but the all-consuming guilt when one of them was hurt, when one of them nearly died. It destroyed people, she watched it every day and she refused to pull other people into that kind of life, SHIELD could do what they liked but she didn’t want any part of it. She sighed again, looking down at the city below. Then her Spidey sense went crazy.

“Whoa, spidey sense warning me of danger. To the left, right and behind?” Before she could do more than twist around to look behind her a blast of sound sent her hurtling to the roof opposite her. Before she could get up a foot came down on her torso hard.

“Stay down Bug!” Spidey looked up into the face of Thundra as Klaw leapt from the building across from them and Wizard floated above them. Wizard grinned.

“Round two Spidergirl. You lose.” Spidey scoffed.

“So it wasn’t enough I kicked your butts in front of some school kids, now the whole city gets to watch.” Wizard threw a disk at Spidey. It attached itself to the symbol on her chest. Thundra removed her foot and Spidey floated off the roof. Her arms pin wheeled as she tried to balance in what amounted to an antigravity bubble. Before she could fully orient herself Thundra wrapped her chain around Spidergirl’s ankle and yanked her across the roof slamming her into every surface the warrior woman could reach. She was horribly dizzy and in pain when she finally floated to a stop. 

“Why does everyone wanna play Whack-a-Spider?” Wizard sighed.

“Ever the joker aren’t you Spidergirl?” Piper grinned under her mask.

“Well someone’s gotta have a sense of humor, you certainly don’t.” Wizard glared at her before motioning to Klaw. The sound villain sent a wave of sound at the hero as Wizard shot a bolt of purple lightning at her. She convulsed and screamed before finally going limp. Thundra smiled.

“She’s out.” Wizard floated up to her tilting her chin up with one hand.

“Good, makes it all the easier to bring her to our employer.”


	13. Superhero 101

Piper smiled under her mask. Wizard was an idiot, one of the first things Natasha had taught her was to never get that close to your opponent unless you are absolutely sure you can handle them, or they’ve already been handled.

“Peek a boo!” Piper said a split second before she kicked Wizard hard in the chest sending him flying into the adjoining building. Thundra and Klaw looked stunned for a moment as Spidey tried to right herself, still caught in the antigravity field. 

“So who’s this employer of yours? Who would hire you bozos?” Thundra growled.

“I preferred her unconscious.” Thundra raced over to the water tower on the other side of the roof, jumping to the top of it and yanking the top off it before stalking towards Spidey with it. Piper covered her head and closed her eyes waiting for the thing to come crashing down onto her head. But it never came. Instead she heard a masculine grunt of effort and Thundra shrieking in rage. Looking up she saw Power Man grinning at her from across the roof. Before she could say anything someone dropped down onto her from above. Though she couldn’t see her face Piper would bet her quite substantial allowance that the girl under the mask was smirking.

“What are you guys doing here!? I had this under control.” Tiger raised her hand, claws extending as she spoke.

“Yeah, except for the part where you didn’t.” She sliced off the disk Wizard had attached to Spidey’s costume. Both girls fell to the roof, Tiger leaping off Spidey and landing on her feet. Spidey landed on her rear and glared at White Tiger as she leapt to her feet. Klaw sent a blast of sound their way, Spidey leapt out of the way but White Tiger was knocked off her feet. Power Man picked up the top of the water tower and swung it at Thundra.

“You dropped this!” But Thundra dodged around his guard and grabbed hold of the top of the water tower. She swung it at Power Man sending him flying into the base of the water tower. The resulting flood sent Thundra flying off the edge of the roof. Spidey jumped after her, riding the wave down the building.

“Surf’s up!” She sent a line of webbing at the building and a line at the still falling Thundra, catching the warrior woman by the ankle. The roof of the water tower had apparently also been sent spinning by the flood on the roof and Spidey swore under her breath, swinging herself and Thundra out of harm’s way as it came crashing over the edge of the roof. Not listening to the threats and curses being spat at her by the villainess Spidey stuck her to the side of the building before letting herself drop after the rapidly falling piece of metal. She heard screaming from the streets below as she sent webline after webline at the large piece of metal. She swung off, back towards the fight passing Thundra as she looked down at her handiwork. The top of the water tower was suspended at least twelve feet above the sidewalk. Thundra was still growling at her.

“You miserable little b….” That was as far as she got as Spidergirl webbed her mouth shut.

“Watch your language Thundy! There are kids watching.” Piper reached the roof in time to see Nova blast an anti-gravity disk off Power Man’s back. Se snatched him up with a webline and set him on a separate but nearby roof before swinging back off to rejoin the fight. She landed on the roof just as White Tiger was knocked off it by Klaw. 

“Seriously?” She dove after Tiger and caught her around the waist. As they swung over to the roof where Iron Fist and Power Man waited White Tiger stirred and growled. Piper ducked as the other girl lashed out at her.

“I can save myself!” Piper rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, except for the part where you didn’t.” They landed on the roof with the others at the same time Nova landed. Piper shook her head at them. 

“If you wanna save someone look down there.” She gestured over the edge of the roof. The others looked down and saw a large crowd of people who had gathered to watch the fight, many snapping pictures of the still struggling Thundra. Spidey continued.

“Superhero 101. We can defend ourselves, they can’t. I got these bozos. Go. Protect and serve.” White Tiger nodded turning to the other gathered heroes.

“You heard the lady!” Piper grinned internally, it wasn’t often anyone called her a lady. As the others set off to help the people below Piper swung over to the roof Klaw was running across. 

“Hey screechy! Remember me?” She spotted Wizard out of the corner of her eye but gave no sign that she’d seen him which was lucky as he sent several antigravity disks hurtling towards her. She used her webbing to grab them and sun once before smacking Klaw in the face with them and letting them loose to hit Wizard knocking him out of the fight once again. Klaw sent a blast of sound her way and she dodged, not noticing the bugletron billboard behind her. She swore and was about to jump after it as she had the water tower roof but then she saw a streak of light speed into view and smash through the billboard turning it to dust. But since she was distracted Klaw took the opportunity to blast her off the roof. She was about halfway back up the building when she saw Iron Fist jumping to take down Klaw. There was a loud explosion and Piper spotted Klaw plummeting off the building and raced along it just catching him before he hit the ground. As luck would have it he had come down right in front of Power Man, White Tiger, and Nova. 

“Let’s cut the volume.” Piper laughed slightly. They weren’t particularly good at smack talk yet but there was potential there. She didn’t really have time to dwell on it though as Wizard blasted them off their feet.

“You won’t escape again little heroes. My power gloves are charged to their maximum. Piper jumped to the street light just in front of Wizard to draw his attention away from the others as they struggled to their feet. 

“Wait, what gloves?” She asked innocently, she knew about his power gloves but she needed him to show them to her for this gamble to work. 

“These gloves!” He sounded a bit annoyed as he fell right into her plan. She grinned under her mask. 

“Oh! Those gloves.” Before he had time to react she crossed her right wrist over her left and fired two weblines at the gloves in question before pulling back hard and slamming them together, forcing them to overload. There was a large flare of purple light then everything went quiet.


	14. Me Time

Nick Fury almost smiled as he looked over the teens as a group of Agents escorted the frightful four onto a ship so they could be shipped off to prison. Spidey followed White Tiger and Iron Fist onto the transport and soon they had arrived back at the helicarrier. Clint was on the landing strip when the plane full of teen heroes landed. After the doors opened he rushed in and grabbed Spidey by the arm dragging her out of the plane and into the carrier, leaving the other teens to look at each other confused. As soon as the elevator doors closed he turned to her. 

“Are you ok? I was watching the news footage, you got your ass kicked out there! What were you thinking, you should have hit the signal.” Piper rolled her eyes. A while back Clint and Natasha had given her an emergency signal in case she ever got in over her head. She had yet to actually use it but kept it on her at all times. Clint was always a bit overprotective. 

“Uncle Clint I’m fine, a few bumps and bruises but that’s to be expected. My ears will be ringing for a few days but other than that I’m fine. No need for the signal.” Clint rolled his eyes and hugged her before patting her on her back and getting off the elevator. 

“Good luck with your team there Spidey.” Piper grinned under her mask and rode the elevator to the observation deck where Nick Fury was waiting for her. She could have sworn he almost smiled at her as she walked up to him feeling more awkward than she had ever felt before. 

“Alight, you win. I’ll be on your team.” There was a definite twinkle in Nick Fury’s one good eye as he pulled the web shooter she had given back to him out of his coat. 

“I thought you’d say as much.” Piper rolled her eyes and fixed it back in place. She flexed her wrist still getting used to the feel of the much larger device.

“But I still operate solo as Spider-girl, it’s my version of me time. And my father knows nothing of this, and never will.” Fury nodded.

“He’ll never hear it from me or mine.” Piper nodded at him and checked the time on a nearby screen. 

“Speaking of me time, I have homework to do. Call if you need me.” With that she waved and raced off to the hanger. When the other teens arrived on the deck they looked surprised that she hadn’t stuck around. Iron Fist looked almost disappointed. 

“Don’t worry you’ll be seeing her again soon.”

 

The next day life seemed to have gone back to normal at last. Piper sighed in relief as she opened her locker. Finally, some peace and quiet. 

“Oh puny Parker!!” Of course it couldn’t last. She turned and saw Flash Thompson baring down on her again one fist smashing into the other. 

“Locker knocker time!” Piper braced herself for the usual beating but suddenly something grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her out of the way. Flash barreled past and straight into her locker which was gently kicked shut by a green sneaker clad foot. Piper blinked and turned to her rescuers. 

“Thanks.” She smiled at a group of four. Three boys one girl. The one who had grabbed her shirt was a tall buff African American with a bright smile, the second, a blonde with big blue eyes wearing mostly green smiled softly. The girl was about Pipers height with dark skin and hair and intelligent eyes. The final one was a touch shorter than Piper, he looked to be or Latino decent and looked none too happy to be there. Piper felt herself frown, there was something oddly familiar about these people.

“Wait do I know you guys?” The blonde one smiled.

“We’re your new classmates. I’m Danny Rand.” The tall buff one waved. 

“Luke Cage.” The girl smiled.

“Ava Ayala.” There was silence for a moment before Ava elbowed the last boy in the side. He winced and frowned but finally introduced himself.

“Sam Alexander.” Piper paused still not quite finding a connection between these very familiar teens and anyone in her memory. Luck Cage grinned.

“Think about it.” That was when it clicked. Luke Cage. That was what white Tiger had almost called Power Man. But that meant that they were… Her horror must have shown on her face because everyone but Sam grinned. 

“Yeah some idiot gave Fury the idea that we needed me time, away from Shield.” Piper spluttered. They knew. But how much did they know? Did they know everything?! Oh she was going to wound Fury if she ever figured out how. Luke spoke up again. 

“By the way don’t sweat the secret ID. Code of silence dude.” Piper finally found her voice.

“T… That’s great! Listen I gotta talk to a guy about a thing.” Without another word she raced off. Her feet took her as fast as she could run to the principal’s office. She slammed her hands down on his desk. 

“I need an immediate transfer.” A voice from behind the chair which was facing the window, not her, responded immediately.

“Denied Miss Parker.” Piper spluttered not even registering that she knew that voice.

“What why!?” The chair spun around and Piper just about fell over.

“Because, Fury wants you where he can keep an eye on you.” Piper’s eyes bugged.

“Coulson!” She couldn’t believe it.

“Acting principal Coulson. Thwip Thwip.” Piper stormed out of his office and off down the now mostly deserted hallway.

“No, no no no no. Never I’ll say it again, no!” She passed by her own locker and heard a knocking sound. 

“Can someone let me out of here! Please!” It was Flash still stuck in her locker. She couldn’t help the grin that spread over her face as she thought to herself, ‘Alright, maybe yes.’


	15. Subway Chase

Piper couldn’t seem to catch a break these days. She dodged left pulling the spider-cycle up onto the wall of the subway tunnel. She’d picked up a stray giant robot on fourteenth street and hadn’t been able to shake him. She rolled her eyes as she dodged again the robot forcing her to drive on the celling. She sped out of the main tunnel and passed a station full of people. They all looked up in awe but she didn’t have time to enjoy it.

“Get down!” The crowd screamed and ducked as the thing came smashing its way after Spidey. Piper couldn’t help but think that maybe she was jinxed when it came to robotics. Almost every robot she’d ever met had at some point turned on her, except for JARVIS. JARVIS was cool. She sped away from the robot and felt something jab into her shoulder. She swatted the arm away and glared at the robot over her shoulder.

“Rude!” The holo screen on her bike flickered from the normal readouts to the annoyed face of Nick Fury director of SHIELD. 

“Spider-girl are you fighting that thing or playing with it?” Piper contemplated his question for a moment as she dodged another arm. 

“Can I get back to you on that Nick?” He rolled his eye. 

“You have weapons. Use them.” Piper drove the bike up back down the wall. 

“Yeah untested weapons! Electro-webs? Not sounding safe!” Fury let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Hence they are weapons.” Spidey nodded slightly.

“Fair point.” She swiveled in her seat and fired at the robot but it moved faster than she’d expected, dodging out of the way. Spidey groaned as her own web pulled her off her bike and the robot grabbed her around the waist and slammed her onto the railings pinning down both of her arms and her legs. Of course, right then the lights from the incoming subway began to light up the tunnel as the driver of the train laid on the horn. Piper glanced over at the third rail.

“Oh, this will be pain.” She shot a web, attaching it to the third rail then pressed her wrist back just a touch more activating the electro-web function of her new web shooters. She screamed as electricity coursed through her and up into the robot. The mechanical monstrosity convulsed and released its grip on her. Piper leapt off the rails onto the celling holding on tight as the robot was smashed to pieces on the tracks. Piper found her bike doing wheelies to entertain the kids on the platform. She whistled and it raced through the crowd parking in front of her. She swore it had a rudimentary AI that Doc Conner’s hadn’t told her about. She swung her leg over her bike as camera flashes began going off all around her. She grinned under the mask. 

“Remember kids don’t try this at home!” Then she sped off up the side of one of the columns and back into the tunnel back the way she came. Soon she reached the roof where she’d stashed her clothes. She peeled off the suits gloves and rolled up her left sleeve. There was a tiny pinprick but it was disappearing quickly. 

“What the heck did that thing want anyway? Dude I’m starting to think robots just hate me.” She pulled on her shirt and shook her head stowing the gloves and mask safely in a secret compartment on her bag. She scaled down the fire escape and took off towards the school. She almost made it before the doors slammed closed, locking her out. Piper slid down the doors.

“Crap, like today wasn’t already going swimmingly.” She heard a whistle and looked over to see Harry Osborn leaning out of a now open window. She grinned and scrambled in through the window, making a show of needing some help. Harry pulled her inside and helped her to her feet grinning. 

“Seriously, I’m buying you a watch for your birthday, maybe a watch company.” Piper laughed. Harry was always there for her when she needed someone. Piper was the school punching bag, be it Flash Thompson or Liz Allen and her cronies. Harry always had her back and thankfully extra outerwear for the days Liz and her cronies broke into her locker and stole her clothes. Harry grinned walking backwards in front of her.

“Seriously there are days I think you’d forget where you live if Happy didn’t drive you home. Just don’t be late tonight.” Piper’s face scrunched up in confusion. 

“Tonight?” Harry rolled his eyes.

“See what I mean? Scatterbrained. My dad’s going out of town. The penthouse is open for a movie marathon with you me and MJ.” Piper grinned but before she could reply Ava popped up at her elbow and grinned.

“Hello! Do you mind if we borrow Piper for a teensy minute?” Danny and Luke had popped up on either side of Piper. 

“Does it have to be now? I’m talking to Harry.” Sam grabbed her sleeve and yanked pulling her behind him. 

“Parker. Talk, now!” Piper shouted over her shoulder.

“Sorry Harry! I’ll catch you at lunch!” Sam tugged her around the corner the others following close behind. Harry sighed, kicking at a piece of crumpled up paper on the ground. He was starting to wonder if he’d ever get the chance to tell Piper how he felt. A hand landed on his shoulder. He looked into the face of his other best friend. MJ smiled at him sadly.

“It’s ok Harry, you’ll get your chance. I know you will.” Harry smiled back. 

“Thanks MJ.”


	16. An Old Friend

Piper handed Ava back her phone as Jamison’s latest rant against Spider-girl ended. She raised an eyebrow at her gathered team.

“So? Jamison never lays off me. This is supposed to be news?” Nova rolled his eyes and Ava spoke up.

“So! Why did we have to hear about this from Fury and not you?” Piper pulled a book out of her locker depositing her backpack as she did. 

“You guys aren’t my mommy and daddies. I don’t have to tell you what I’m doing at all times.” Danny shook his head. 

“Stand together or fall alone.” Piper rolled her eyes.

“And that’s another thing. I agreed to help with this program if and only if my time stayed mine. And you guys yanking me away in the middle of a conversation with my best friend counts as cutting into my time, unless it’s for an actual emergency. Seriously I barely know any of you, we aren’t friends yet. That’s something you have to earn.” Piper slammed her locker closed and walked away missing the slightly hurt looks on her teams faces. She still wasn’t sure about this whole team thing. They’d done ok against the frightful four but the others lack of experience or care for civilian safety was worrying. Piper wasn’t paying attention to where she was walking and ran straight into the back of what she thought for a moment was Flash. Her books fell from her hands papers scattering all over the floor. She muttered a quick sorry and knelt to pick up her papers. The guy she’d bumped into turned and knelt to help her gather her papers. He handed her a small stack of calculus notes with a smile. He was blonde like Flash, but he was missing the ever-present Letterman jacket. His smile was much warmer than Flash’s, and his sparkling blue eyes were familiar. Piper stood, taking the hand he offered to help her. 

“Thanks. Sorry about that, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” The smile never wavered. 

“It’s ok.” He looked so familiar, Piper couldn’t help herself.

“Have we met?” The smile grew wider.

“I was hoping you’d recognize me Pipes. I know it’s been a long time but hey a guy can dream.” The nickname was what made it click. It had been what Uncle Ben had called her and her friends had adopted it up until she was eleven when her uncle had died. But one of her closest friends had been forced to move away before her uncle had died. Tears stung the corner of her eyes.

“Eddie?” He held out his arms and Piper practically ran him over with the force of her hug. 

“Heya Pipes. It’s so good to see you.” Eddie’s parents had worked with Piper’s, had died in the same plane crash. But unlike Piper Eddie hadn’t had any relatives to take him in. He’d been a ward of the state and when he was eleven and Piper was ten, the orphanage he’d been living at had been shut down. He’d left and Piper hadn’t seen him since. Piper took a step back swiping at her eyes with her sleeve. 

“Eddie what are you doing here?” He grinned. 

“I go here now.” The teacher behind him, Mr. Monroe, Piper’s advanced Calculus teacher cleared his throat.

“I’m glad you two know each other. I was going to ask Piper here to show you around the school, give you the tour and all that. Will that be a problem Miss Parker?” Piper shook her head. 

“Absolutely not, Mr. Monroe.” Mr. Monroe smiled. 

“Very good. I’ll make your excuses with Miss Quin. Get going. I expect you to be present for that test in fifth period.” Piper nodded and Eddie held out his arm. Piper threaded her arm through his and they walked off Piper pointing out different classrooms along the way. 

Harry was getting worried. Piper hadn’t shown up to their shared English class. They didn’t have any classes together after that until after lunch. She said she’d find him at lunch they always did. Piper, Harry and MJ always sat at the same table just the three of them. Harry grabbed his tray and collected his food before looking around the cafeteria. He spotted Piper’s short crop of chestnut hair easily and grinned slightly relieved. He was halfway to her when he spotted the tall muscular blonde sitting next to her. He froze. MJ raised an eyebrow at him then spotted the boy sitting next to Piper. Her jaw went slack for a moment. Then she grinned and pulled Harry over to the table.

“Eddie? Is that you?” The boy looked up and smiled broadly. He hugged MJ and Piper beamed at Harry. That smile did funny things to his heart. He grinned and sat down across from her. 

“So this is the infamous Eddie Brock?” Eddie nodded and held out his hand to shake Harry’s. 

“That’s right. You must be Harry. Piper’s told me quite a bit about you.” Piper blushed slightly and Harry felt like doing a happy dance. She’d told him about Eddie Brock, how they were like brother and sister until he’d been forced to move. Harry felt a bit less threatened now that he knew who this man was. They were all interrupted when Flash Thompson popped out of nowhere shoving between Piper and Eddie. Piper slipped and fell off the bench her tray ‘mysteriously’ following her down. It landed on her shirt and Flash’s girlfriend Liz laughed loudly as Piper tried to wipe gravy off her white shirt. 

“So, you’re the new guy huh? Word of advice, don’t hang with losers and you might actually make something of yourself.” Eddie’s hands curled into fists. 

“Good advice. Guess I won’t be hanging out with you then.” The whole cafeteria went quiet as Flash went red in anger. Only Harry noticed Piper’s detention buddies, the blonde one and the tall one who had more muscle than even Flash helping her up. The small Latino was glaring daggers at Flash. The only other girl in their little group looked like she was going to murder Flash. Harry stood and swung off his jacket, swinging it around Piper’s shoulders. 

“Great another member if the loser squad. Have fun being a nerd.” Flash walked off red in the face, he sneered at Piper as he passed the girl and boy who weren’t still standing on either side of her stepped in front of her. Flash stalked off. 

“Thanks for your help.” The blonde nodded. 

“A friend in need.” Piper flinched slightly. The girl held out a hand.

“Come on I’ve got a spare shirt in my locker.” The small group walked off with Piper in tow. Eddie turned to MJ who was fuming. 

“Does that happen often?” MJ stabbed her peas and nodded. Harry sat back down. 

“Nearly daily, though he likes to switch up how he bullies her.” Eddie raised an eyebrow. 

“And you haven’t done anything about it?” MJ kept stabbing her food not really interested in eating it anymore.

“Of course we’ve tried, but none of the teachers will do anything about it. He’s the star quarterback. They can’t suspend him without worrying about how the football team will fail without him.” Eddie pushed away his tray.

“That’s bullshit.” Harry nodded eyes still on the doors they had left through. 

“Yeah, but I guess she’s got her detention friends now.” Eddie raised an eyebrow.

“Baby Piper in detention? Now this I’ve got to hear.”

Ava led Piper and the boys back to her locker and rummaged around before pulling out a few shirts and pulling Piper to the girl’s room. The boys stood watch outside the bathroom as Ava helped her pick out a new shirt then ushered her into one of the stalls. 

“Ava, about what I said earlier…” Ava cut her off. 

“Water under the bridge. None of us were particularly happy when we joined the team either. Except Sam, when he still thought he was leader.” Piper snorted. 

“Still everybody deserves a chance and I wasn’t willing to give you guys that. Forgive me and try again?” Piper stepped out of the stall in a floaty blue blouse that hid the top of the Spider-girl costume nicely, Harry’s jacket was sitting around her shoulders. Ava smiled. 

“Absolutely.” Piper stepped out of the bathroom and apologized the rest of the team and they all agreed that they’d gotten off on the wrong foot and should try again. Sam had to be prodded by Danny and Luke but that was more than likely due to the fact that Piper had embarrassed him a bit the day before by shooting down his idea to go after an A list villain without permission or provocation. In hindsight, he realized it would have been nearly suicidal to do so but he’d wanted to show off. They wandered off to class and MJ caught up to Piper.


	17. Falling In The Black

MJ had suggested to Piper that she bring the new kids along to movie night. Harry had seemed to be feeling a bit left out. In hindsight, it hadn’t been such a great idea. But him turning movie night into a raging party was a worse idea. MJ waved as she spotted Piper coming into the penthouse. She and her new friends fought their way into the crowd. 

“Hey Piper. Some party huh?” Piper frowned. 

“I thought we were just going to be watching movies.” MJ frowned and ducked as Flash threw a football to one of his friends. 

“Apparently we’re watching half the school party down at Harry’s instead.” Harry popped up next to MJ, a slightly forced smile on his face. 

“The whole school actually, except for the ones who weren’t invited.” Harry glared pointedly at Sam, Ava, Danny, and Luke. Sam was stuffing his face with nachos. Piper frowned deeply.

“I invited them Harry. I thought if everyone got to know each other things would be cool.” Harry looked away slightly. Piper reached out and lay a hand on his shoulder. 

“Harry, I’m trying here.” He shrugged off her hand. 

“I don’t need new friends. As you can see I’ve got plenty.” Harry walked away into the crowd of people all of whom were adoring him, cheering and chanting his name. Piper felt tears sting her eyes. 

“Guess that means you don’t need me either.” She muttered and felt a hand land on her shoulder. She looked up into Eddie’s face. He smiled sadly. 

“You ok Pipes?” Piper was about to reply when her spider sense went crazy. It was even worse than when the Malibu house had been attacked, worse than when the frightful four attacked. Her head spun and her hand flew to it. Eddie’s eyes grew concerned. 

“Sorry I need some fresh air.” She rushed past him and out onto the balcony. It was nearly empty except for Flash who appeared to be standing at the edge of the balcony looking upset. He spotted Piper and swiped at his eyes. Piper’s spider sense was still ringing, it was starting to hurt her head. It felt like a high-pitched whistle ringing through her brain. 

“Parker? What are you doing out here?” Piper couldn’t reply her head was ringing too much. 

“Parker?” Flash sounded almost concerned. Then there was a squelching noise and they both looked around and spotted a slimy thing crawling up the side of the building. It hissed and grew reaching out towards them. Flash pushed her in front of him. 

“Take the nerd! She’s bite sized!” The creature hissed loudly and Piper dove to the side expecting Flash to do the same. The quarterback was a bit slower than she was though. The black mass of ooze wrapped around Flash as he screamed. His scream turned into a shrieking hiss as he snarled at Piper. She jumped avoiding a stretched out arm that tried to snatch her up. The thing that had been Flash snarled again smashing enlarged fists down into the deck. The whole thing shook and the sounds of the party stopped. Piper straightened back up as the thing hissed again and lunged. She tried to dodge but it swung out at her catching her in the side and sending her flying through a window back into the party. She landed hard, pieces of shattered glass cutting into her hands as she tried to pull herself up. The thing crawled into the room lumbering and hissing as it went. One of the boys in the party helped Piper to her feet. The thing that had been Flash roared tendrils reaching up and shattering the lights. Screams filled the room and in the confusion Piper managed to slip off into the bathroom and change into her spare costume. She always kept one on her usually hidden in a secret compartment in her backpack. She slipped back out into the living room, climbing up the wall. She heard Harry calling out for her, for Piper. Eddie seemed to have been swept off in the crowd of panicking teens.

“I’m right behind you! Go!” The last guest save MJ who was standing by the doors with Harry ran out, pausing to give Harry her number. Ava pushed MJ out the door and Luke and Danny grabbed Harry and dragged him bodily out of the apartment despite his protests. Piper leapt down from the wall landing in front of the creature. 

“I’ll only say this once, let the jock go slimy!” The creature hissed and swung its arms out at Spidey who dodged, leaping upwards avoiding the snaking tendrils by inches. 

“I think it likes you webs!” Nova floated in through the window and stood next to Spider-girl. The thing hissed and swung at Nova instead hissing violently. 

“I think it likes you better bucket head.” Nova rolled his eyes and shoved Spidey back a bit. 

“I got this!” Neither of them noticed the black sludge detaching itself from Flash until it was lunging for Nova. He tried to shoot at it but missed and screamed as it wrapped around him. For a moment, he hung in the air hands glowing black ooze still shifting. Then the thing that had been Nova hissed and snarled at her and Spider-girl leapt aside as enlarged glowing fists swung at her. 

“The heck did I ever do to you? I mean I kinda get Nova being mad at me cause he thinks I took his place as leader of the team but it sounded like there was an issue with him being leader anyway.” Piper dodged another blow and leapt out of the window. The thing that had been Nova followed. 

“Seriously this might normally be fun. Nova could use a good takedown in the ego department. But seriously this way it just isn’t fair.” She was trying to buy time. She needed to figure out what this thing was. Not a robot this time. Definitely organic, jumping from host to host. A symbiote then. She leapt up the wall shooting a line and swinging up to the roof. It followed her, like she’d guessed it would. It seemed fixated but she had no idea why. The others burst out onto the roof as Nova, actually him this time screamed. 

“Get it off me!” He was bent double fighting the symbiote that was trying to take hold of him again. White Tiger turned to Spider-girl.

“How do we get rid of that thing without hurting Nova?” Spidey shrugged. 

“My irresistible comedic banter has had no effect. That’s all I’ve got.” Piper couldn’t see Ava’s face but she could practically hear the condescending eyebrow raise. Luke rolled his eyes and raced forward.

“Kidding! Don’t touch it! It’ll stick to you!” Luke yanked the goo off Nova. 

“Not if you touch it hard enough!” He tried to shake off the goo, punch it but it crept up his arms. Danny cried out watching his best friend engulfed in the goop. The now possessed Power-man ripped a large metal structure off the roof. Piper had to think on her feet. A symbiotic relationship, seeming to attach to the host via contact creating a nearly parasitic bond. Easiest way to get it off was to break the bond. Looked like the electro webs were going to come in handy after all. 

“Alright slimy. I gave you your chance, time to take you down!” Piper snapped her wrist forwards shooting a web at Power-man. It struck him right in the chest and Piper pressed her wrist backwards just a touch more activating the electro webbing function. Electricity coursed through Power-man and the symbiote. The black goop started to drop off him as he wobbled. 

“Come on Power-man, that’s like static cling to you. Shake it off.” The symbiote reformed around him and snarled at Spider-girl. Grabbing the metal structure it flung it across the roof. Piper barely managed to dodge it but it went sailing over the edge of the building.

“Aw schnitzel.” Piper dove after the structure. She shot a few webs at it, tangling it in her webbing and just managing to catch it before it would have squashed MJ and Harry flat. 

“That’s right kids, your party favor tonight is not getting squashed into pancake-dom! Though I’d appreciate you moving, this thing is really heavy.” MJ and Harry ran out of the way and Piper set down the large chunk of metal before scaling the building again. She reached the roof just in time to see Iron Fist lunging at the creature. 

“Has no one heard of a long-distance attack!?” Iron Fist slammed said fist into Power-man’s chest and the symbiote flew off leaping after Danny. 

“Great Iron Fist! Keep it busy! We’ll find a way to contain it!” But just as she said it the symbiote caught Danny around the ankle and yanked him down covering him starting with his feet. 

“I can hear its thoughts. They… They’re confused. Spider-girl. It wants… You?” Danny barely managed to finish his sentence before the thing overtook him completely screeching at Spider-girl who was gaping at the creature.

“Only one problem with that. I was kinda planning on being me for the rest of my life.” Piper dodged and shot a web into the creature’s eyes. It hissed and slammed its fists at her. She slipped past it and it hissed again. Then its hand began to glow. Iron Fist punched downwards shaking off the symbiote with a loud cry.

“Get out!” A wave of black goop began to head for White Tiger. It was Piper’s turn to snarl. 

“That’s it! You’re not hurting anyone else on this team! You want me creepy. Come get me!” She held out her arms and felt the goop wrap around her. Her vision went black and she felt darkness close in on her. Whispers echoed from the darkness.

‘Never good enough. Public menace. Your fault your uncle died. Everyone you care about dies, because of you. Alone forever. Going to lose them too. Weren’t good enough to protect Harry. Won’t ever be good enough. You will fail no matter what you do. Better off gone!’ She fell to her knees as the negative emotions overwhelmed her. An unknown voice echoed in her ears. 

‘Distilled aggression, pure Venom.’ A silent scream fell from her lips as she fell into the blackness.


	18. Patching Things Up

It was almost like floating in an anti-gravity chamber, and yes Piper had some experience in one of those. Tony let her play around in the one that permanently resided at Stark Tower, under supervision though half the time that meant Uncle Bruce or one of the Dummy Bots. It was really only different because of the darkness that surrounded her and the movie that seemed to be playing in front of her. It seemed to be shot with some kind of color mute filter, everything was distant and she could almost hear what they were saying but not quite. They seemed to be in trouble. White Tiger was thrown across the roof a small radio tower brought down on her legs pinning her down. Piper wanted to help but she couldn’t seem to move. It was as if her body wasn’t hers anymore. Something about a symbiote flickered across the surface of her mind but then pain spiked. A loud hiss came from somewhere a foot or so above her head, from her mouth? No that wasn’t possible. The pain returned, this time searing across her back. She got slightly dizzy as her perspective shifted rapidly. Nova was still laying on the roof but he was shooting a beam at her. He’d shot her in the back? She hadn’t thought he’d hated her that much. He was still shooting her, her face was starting to sting but she seemed to be walking forward into his shot. She didn’t remember doing that. She looked down and saw black webs surrounding her, she was completely wrapped in them, trapped. Trapped in her own head, she tried to struggle as the symbiote picked up Nova and threw him into White Tiger and Power-man. Iron Fist advanced slowly hands held up in a calming gesture. It sounded like he was talking through a tunnel but she caught what he was saying this time. 

“I know you’re in there, Spider-girl. Let’s talk.” There was a warped hissing laugh. From her mouth she realized, or at least the mouth of the symbiote. 

“There is only Venom.” Then it lunged shooting webs out of its wrists, not her web shooters, she could feel those, the symbiotic webbing pressing them uncomfortably tight to her wrists, blocking their use, even if she could move. Danny was trapped, stuck to the wall, Venom advanced teeth bared as if ready to rip Danny to shreds. Power-man lunged shoving Venom away from Iron fist. Venom slammed a fist into Power-man’s face sending him flying. Then it turned and spotted Harry who seemed to be standing on the edge of the fire escape watching the fight. Venom practically howled and lunged. Piper screamed. Suddenly she could move again. Her legs were still trapped but she didn’t need those to fight. Somehow she pulled her torso out of the symbiote, strands of its black tarlike substance tried to pull her back in. She growled.

“That’s it ugly I’m not letting you hurt anyone else!” Their fight had to have been confusing to watch. Piper fought to get free as the symbiote tried to pull her back in. They battled across the rooftop as the team watched on unsure if they could help without hurting her. The oily mass of the symbiote reached out and wrapped itself around her hands, rendering her web-shooters useless. She struggled and fought but she could feel the symbiote winning. 

“It’s too strong! Can’t do it alone!” Then she got an idea, it was gonna hurt like hell but it might just work. 

“Nova I need my hands!” Nova shot a quick blast freeing her hands. Piper reached both hands away from the symbiote pointing them towards two other large metal structures on the roof. She could feel herself sinking into the symbiote but that would, hopefully, make this work even better. She shot lines at both structures wrapping the web around them with a flick of the wrist.

“You wanna be Spider-girl? You’re in for a big shock Venom!” She pushed her wrists back further activating the electro web function. Electricity coursed through the metal through her and back into the metal. Venom let out an inhuman screech and shook as Piper bit her tongue trying to hold back the scream building in her throat as she convulsed. With nowhere else to go the electricity poured upward giving the illusion of lightning striking. She felt the symbiote give one last shriek more than she heard it and she let her wrists go slack. The webs retracted and she fell to her knees but before she could fall all the way to the roof someone steadied her. She blinked a few times, clearing the lights from her eyes. It was Nova though the others weren’t far behind. Piper smiled under her mask. 

“Don’t tell Fury, that’s definitely gonna void the warranty.” Nova snorted out a laugh as Power-man and White Tiger pulled Iron Fist down from the wall shredding most of his clothes as they went. He was wearing a pair of stylized briefs that matched his costume and he had a dragon tattoo that matched the insignia on his costume burned into his chest. The team stared, Danny shrugged smiling under his mask. 

“It’s a monk thing.” Piper laughed lightly. Harry and MJ vaulted over the last few inches between them and the roof. Harry hurried up to the gathered heroes. 

“Have you see my friend Piper? We couldn’t find her anywhere.” Luke raised an eyebrow.

“Shrimpy kid?” Sam chipped in. 

“Spaghetti arms?” Danny held in a grin. 

“Three dollar haircut?” Ava wasn’t quite as witty though.

“Only a ninety-eight average?” The others turned to her eyebrows collectively raised. 

“What? Is that not a jokey insult?” Spider-girl stepped forward, still a touch wobbly on her feet. 

“She’s fine.” Harry smiled looking utterly relieved. 

“Good, she’s my best friend.” Piper smiled slightly as the door to the roof burst open and Norman Osborn rushed out followed by two police officers. 

“You destroyed it?!” For a moment, there was something demented behind Norman Osborn’s eyes. But in an instant it was gone. Replaced with the look Piper was used to when she saw Norman, cool and calculating but maybe caring, somewhere deep down, maybe. 

“Thank goodness, get the hero some help.” Piper shook her head waving off the officers. Norman turned to Harry.

“I’m so glad you’re alright, you could have been killed. You’re lucky Spider-girl was here.” Harry looked a bit taken aback as his father hugged him lightly. 

“Yeah, hurray for Spider-girl.” Piper thought he sounded a touch resentful but ignored it, there were few people who actually called her a hero even sarcastically. She nodded to the team before swinging off. She had to make it look like Piper hadn’t just been in a fight for her very identity. She managed to sneak back into the Osborn’s penthouse without being seen and shut herself in the closet she’d changed in. She quickly changed back into her street clothes. For extra measure she jammed the closet door and began, lightly for her, pounding on it calling for help. Soon enough there was an answering call. It was Harry, MJ not far behind him. 

“Piper? Where are you?” Piper hammered on the door, lightly so she didn’t break it.

“Coat closet! I was running out of the penthouse but I tripped, fell in here. Then something slammed into the door! Now I can’t get it open.” It took both Harry and MJ to get the door open. Harry pulled her into a hug.

“I was so worried when we couldn’t find you.” Piper blushed bright red. MJ smiled until she spotted Piper’s hands. There were scratches and several pieces of glass were still sticking out of them. She grabbed them in her own examining the palms. Harry hissed in sympathy. MJ smiled lightly as Norman Osborn cleared his throat behind them. 

“We’ll leave you two to talk. The first aid kit still under the sink in the bathroom?” Harry nodded looking a bit nervous as the girls made their way to the bathroom. It took MJ about twenty minutes to clean up Piper’s hands completely, she couldn’t see the glass that was hidden under healed skin. Piper could take care of it when MJ left, or when she got home. MJ wrapped her hands and smiled as she headed out to make sure Harry was alright. Piper carefully unwrapped her left hand and grabbed a sterile scalpel out of the kit. She managed to pull out two more shards of glass without too much blood getting anywhere. She decided that was all she could do for now and rewrapped her hand. She wrapped the scalpel in extra bandages and slipped it into her bag, no need to bring up uncomfortable questions. She slipped out of the bathroom and back into the living room just in time to see MJ showing Harry how to use the mop. 

“I knew that?” Piper chuckled lightly. Harry turned to her and smiled slightly. 

“Hey.” Piper waved awkwardly.

“Hey.” MJ smiled. 

“Double hey means you two need some time. I’m gonna head home. Hope your hands feel better soon Piper.” Piper nodded and MJ left. There was an awkward silence before both teens spoke at once. 

“I’m sorry.” They both blushed and chuckled. Piper picked up a trash bag and began to help Harry pick up the mess left by the party. She was doing it slightly gingerly as the glass still remaining in her hands moved and sliced new wounds into her hands. Harry grabbed the bag from her. 

“I got this, but if you’d like to hang out that’d be cool.” Piper grinned. 

“With you always.” Piper began to search for the remote. As she turned away she missed Harry catching a small piece of goop inside an empty bottle. 

“And hey, maybe we can try again. I promise they’re good people. Except Sam, Sam’s… Sam.” Harry laughed before turning around to face Piper. 

“You know, why not? What’s the harm in making a new friend?”


	19. Home

Piper crept in through her private entrance to Avengers Tower, hoping against hope that the Avengers had been called out on a mission. She was not so lucky as the elevator stopped on the family level instead of her private level. She might have convinced, or in reality slightly reprogramed, JARVIS to ignore her frequent comings and goings and to keep quiet about all things Spider-girl that went on in the tower but he did help Tony parent most of the time. It wasn’t that Tony was a bad parent but he didn’t really know what he was doing. Though that meant the Piper had plenty of leeway to slip off and be Spider-girl it also meant that whenever anything happened that was even semi dangerous Tony got a bit overprotective. This was evidenced by him immediately wrapping her in a hug when she stepped off the elevator. She hugged him back and spotted Natasha’s eyes narrowing at the bandages on her hands. 

“Are you alright Pipes? I knew that Osborn kid was bad news!” Piper laughed lightly. 

“Dad, this was not Harry’s fault. Nobody knows where that thing came from or why it showed up at his house.” Tony huffed clearly annoyed. Clint laughed and held out a large mug of hot chocolate to Piper. She grinned and took it, Clint gave her bandages a cursory glance before making his excuses and heading up to his level. Piper knew a full med kit would be waiting for her in her bathroom when she reached her level. 

“The point remains that he threw a giant house party and it devolved into people getting hurt! And seriously it sounds like it was the most last minute party ever!” Piper laughed lightly.

“That’s probably because it was.” She proceeded to explain using a slightly altered version of events. Tony knew she had been to ‘detention’ last week, he’d bought her ice cream afterwards insisting that a teen’s first detention was a milestone. He had been in and out of detention quite a bit during his short high school career. Tony pouted slightly. 

“None of us are partiers dad. I don’t expect it to happen again.” Tony rolled his eyes slightly. 

“Alright, but if it does, it happens here! Seriously I could throw a party ten times cooler than anything Osborn could.” Piper laughed. Her adoptive father and Norman Osborn were constantly in competition. She and Harry laughed about it a lot.

“I’m pretty sure if half the people at my school found out I’m your kid they would die on the spot. Just of sheer shock.” Tony laughed. Piper sat down at the large kitchen table and sipped her hot chocolate. 

“So aside from Osborn’s disaster of a party how was today?” Piper grinned. 

“It was actually pretty awesome. Remember I told you about my friend Eddie Brock?” Tony nodded taking a seat across from his adoptive daughter. 

“Well he’s back! He goes to midtown high now! He’s a year ahead of me but still. It’s really cool to get to see him again.” Natasha had to hold back a laugh at the look on Tony’s face. He was very protective of his daughter, especially when it came to boys. If Piper wasn’t such an oblivious idiot he would have had quite a bit more work on his hands trying to keep the boys away from her. Though the whole Iron Man thing might work with most of them. 

“That’s great!” Piper grinned wider. 

“Yeah, I’m thinking about inviting him MJ and Harry over for a movie night. If that’s ok?” Natasha could practically see the twitch in Tony’s eyebrow but he couldn’t say no to Piper’s puppy dog eyes. No one could, if Natasha didn’t know better she’d say it was another superpower but she’d been able to do it long before she became Spider-girl. 

“That sounds like fun. But there will be supervision.” Piper grinned and hugged her father before downing the last of her hot chocolate. Then she yawned. 

“I’m beat. I’m gonna go to bed.” Tony ruffled her hair. 

“Sleep tight Pipes.” Piper grabbed her bag and walked back to the elevator. 

“Night Dad!” Tony grinned and turned to talk to Natasha but she was gone. He sighed, he’d never get used to living with the assassin. 

Piper made it up to her room and hissed lightly. Her hands hurt like hell, she knew that her healing factor could fix the damage once she got all the glass out. She walked into her room and found Natasha waiting for her, several towels were laid out and there was the first aid kit she had no doubt Clint had put out for them. Natasha held out her hands for Pipers. Natasha carefully unwrapped the bandages and began to remove the glass that remained in her hands before rewrapping them. Then she pulled Piper into a hug. Piper sniffled. 

“Pauchok, tell me what happened.” Piper began to explain everything while Natasha listened. She spoke about how she had been taken over by the symbiote and how she couldn’t even really comprehend what she was seeing or feeling anymore. Like she wasn’t even a person anymore. Natasha ran a hand through the teens hair as she spoke looking down at the bandages on her hands. Natasha pulled Piper in for another hug and rubbed her back soothingly. Piper was in tears when she finished her story. Natasha told her to change into her pajamas and that she would be right back. The Black Widow snuck off to the kitchen grabbing a small stack of cookies and some chocolate from her stash before making it back to Piper’s room. Piper was still in her bathroom so Natasha cleaned up the first aid kit and set down the snacks on Piper’s bedside table. Piper came out of her bathroom in a set of Captain America pjs. Natasha smiled. Piper grabbed a bar of chocolate and sat down on the bed next to Natasha. Natasha pulled her into a hg again. 

“Your darkness does not define you Pauchok. The fact that you were able to beat it, looked it in the face and took it down, that defines you.” Piper buried herself into Natasha’s side. Natasha smiled at the teen. She smiled as Piper fell asleep. She began to hum a lullaby, she remembered few things from her days before the Red Room but that lullaby was one of them. She knew she couldn’t have children, the Red Room’s graduation ceremony was too effective but if she had ever had kids she hoped they would be like Piper. Sweet smart and kind. She ran her hand through the teens hair again. She hoped that Piper would be ok, an experience like that could seriously mess with your head. Natasha had had her identity stripped away in the Red Room and her grip tightened on Piper’s shoulders at the thought of her going through something similar. The door creaked slightly as it opened and Natasha slipped a hand into her pocket where she always kept a knife, just in case. Clint peeked around the door and Natasha relaxed. 

“How’s she doing?” Natasha smiled at the sleeping teen then up at her partner. 

“She had some glass healed into her hands but other than that she’s physically ok.” Clint sat down next to Natasha at the head of the bed. 

“And mentally?” Natasha frowned slightly.

“Time will tell. Being ripped out of your own head and forced to face every dark thought you’ve ever had is hard. Harder when you have to face it alone.” Clint laid a hand on Natasha’s shoulder. 

“Good thing she’s not alone then isn’t it.” Natasha smiled.

 

Meanwhile back at the Osborn’s currently empty penthouse a dark shadow creeped in through the still broken window. He wore almost all black, only the white collar of his costume and his shocking white hair visible in the darkness. He laughed lightly. This was child’s play. With both Osborn’s staying at a ritzy hotel until their window could be fixed there was nothing to get in his way. He expertly circumvented the security system and made it to the safe he was looking for. He cracked it easily. Smiling he raided the jewelry that was left there. He grinned and grabbed a small box out of the safe. Popping it open he found a small note sitting on top of a beautiful set of sapphire earrings. 

“To Piper, Happy Birthday. Love Harry. Aww that’s so cute. Might as well leave him that, guy sounds like he likes her a lot, those are real sapphires after all. He’s trying.” Slipping out of the window the cat burglar crept back across the city into a small apartment. He set down his bag of loot and pulled off the short wig and mask. Felix Hardy sat down at his kitchen table and laughed as he checked out his haul.


	20. A Break

Eddie glanced around the library, in all honesty he wasn’t sure if she’d even be there but hey he could hope. He spotted the short brunette bob he was looking for at one of the tables farthest from the doors. Piper had her back to him but from the way she was curled in around her computer he could tell she was concentrating hard. He walked over to her and grabbed a book off the shelf as he got a good look at her for the first time in a week. She looked down in the dumps. There were dark bags under her eyes and he hadn’t seen her smile since the disaster of the party. She had her headphones on and was fiddling with something on her computer in the dark corner of the library. Eddie set down his books on the other side of the table and Piper jumped pulling one of her headphones out of her ear. It was their free period and she could normally be found in one corner of the school or another avoiding Flash Thompson and reading but that didn’t seem to be the case here. Eddie grinned at her headphones which had the purple arrow that had become associated with the ex-assassin turned Avenger Hawkeye. 

“Those are cute, he your favorite?” Piper laughed quietly glancing down at her headphones. 

“One of them yeah.” Her smile was short and slightly forced. Eddie frowned trying to peek over her shoulder at what she was working on but she slipped the sleek black laptop closed before he could get a look at it. He shrugged. 

“You ok Pipes? You’ve been off since the party.” Piper stared down at her now closed laptop. In truth she was not ok. The feeling of being ripped out of her own head, trapped watching herself hurt her friends, even if she knew she wasn’t in control it messed with her head. She and Clint were meeting up whenever they both had free time, he and Natasha were the only ones who really understood what that was like. But she couldn’t exactly tell Eddie that. 

“I’m working on a side project. Something for a friend.” That was an outright lie. Truth be told she was trying to find a match for the voice that had rang from the symbiotes mind into hers using the Avengers files on known villains. Danny had confirmed that he’d heard another voice as well as the hissing spitting one of the symbiotes. The others couldn’t remember much but none of them could figure out why only she and Danny had synced with what seemed to be Venom’s memories. None of them were clear though. Muddled flashes were all she’d been able to discern. That and a voice echoing the same words through her head over and over again. 

Distilled aggression. Pure Venom. 

“Piper?” Piper glanced up and unclenched her fist. Her knuckles had been cracking and she hadn’t even noticed. She shook her head in an attempt to clear it. 

“Sorry I’ve just been distracted lately.” Eddie nodded. 

“Yeah I noticed. You’re working too hard.” Piper nodded and just managed to hold in a derisive snort. He had no idea how hard she was working these days. It was nuts how much she managed to do in one day these days. There was training with the team, school, solo Spidey time which almost didn’t happen anymore as at least one member of the team decided it was an excellent time to tag along, then there was training at home, helping her dad and Uncle Bruce work on projects and her sudo therapy sessions with Uncle Clint and Auntie Tasha. Her plate was so full she hadn’t had a chance to schedule movie night at her place. Eddie’s frown deepened then a mischievous glint found its way into his eyes.

“I have an idea. Have you ever played hookey before Pipes?” Piper chuckled. 

“You of all people should know I would never do that.” Eddie’s grin widened. 

“Come on. It’s our free period, no one’s gonna miss us until next period and I know for a fact you are the biggest teacher’s pet and they won’t care if you miss one class.” Piper laid her head on her laptop. 

“Come on we both need a break from this place.” Piper smiled and nodded stuffing her laptop into her bag. 

“You’re right, I could use a break.” Eddie grinned and grabbed her hand leading her out of the school building both of them holding back laughter. 

Harry was sitting in his Geometry class staring out the window when he spotted Eddie leading Piper out of the school building to where several cars and a single motorcycle were parked. Eddie pulled two helmets out of the saddle bags of the bike and handed one to Piper before settling her bag into the bag and zipping it closed. He pulled on his own helmet and Piper mounted the bike after him. They drove off into the afternoon sunlight of a beautiful spring day. Harry stared after them. 

Felix Hardy was treating himself today. His successful heist had landed him enough of a haul to live comfortably for quite some time so he decided to go out and have a little fun today. For him that meant hitting Coney Island, like he and his father used to. He frowned at the thought. His father was still rotting in prison for what he’d done nearly four years ago. He shook off the bad memories and leaned on the railing that separated the amusement park from the river. There were two kids around his age leaning nearby, a tall blond boy built like a linebacker and a small bookish looking brunette. Having nothing better to do he listened to them talk.

“Seriously Eddie, I needed this. Next game’s on me though.” The blond smiled plucking a piece of cotton candy off of the large purple mass the girl was holding. His grin was stained purple when he smiled. She snorted a laugh and shivered slightly. The blond took off his black leather jacket and slung it around her shoulders. They were cute together Felix mused as they wandered away towards the carnival games. He smiled looking out over the river as the sun began to dip low on the horizon. 

Piper took aim and lobbed the baseball into the precise center of the tower of bottles sending them all falling and spinning to the ground. She cheered and bounced as the man in the carnival stand shook his head clearly impressed. 

“Well I gotta say it, you’ve got a good arm on you Miss. You ever considered playing baseball?” Piper shook her head as she picked out her prize from the top shelf. She ended up choosing a giant stuffed version of the Hulk that was nearly the length of her torso. Eddie laughed as she bounced back over to him, maybe all the sugar had been a bad idea but Piper was happy so he was happy. They made their way over to another game, this one was throwing darts at balloons. Piper was again much better than Eddie had expected her to be. She won a plastic version of Thor’s hammer in this game and it seemed to amuse her to no ends. 

“You really like the Avengers, don’t you?” Piper nodded her smile turning slightly mischievous. 

“You could say that.” There was a ringing from Piper’s pocket and Eddie took the large plus Hulk, which was heavier than he’d expected, to let Piper easily answer her phone. She looked at her caller ID first and swore under her breath before she answered.

“Uncle Steve! Oh, did the school call? No. I’m at Coney Island, with a friend. I’m glad you appreciate my honesty… You’re mad at me. Oh, god not the disappointed voice, please. I needed a break.” There was a pause. The phone on the other side seemed to have switched hands. 

“Uncle B, listen… Yes. Yeah I know you never did anything like this…” Another long pause, Piper looked on the verge of laughter. 

“Hey Uncle Clint. Yeah, I needed a break. I’m perfectly safe. Yes, I know Auntie Tasha and you were worried. I skipped class for the first time in sixteen years to go play at Coney Island with a friend. Am I bringing him home?” Piper looked over at Eddie and held in a laugh. 

“I don’t know if he’s ready to meet the family Uncle Clint.” Another pause. Piper paled slightly. 

“Hey dad. Yeah… Yes, I know it’s irresponsible… Seriously? Ok. Ok! No, we’ll follow him. Yeah dad, love you too.” Piper hung up the phone and turned to Eddie. 

“So, my dad’s insisting that he meet you.” Eddie nodded. Piper had mentioned a few times being adopted after her Uncle Ben had died but she’d never been more specific than a passing mention. They headed towards the exit of the park and Piper spotted a black Audi waiting near the entrance. 

“Wait here.” She took the plush from him and rushed over to the nearly unmarked car. She dropped off the prizes she’d won in the backseat and the car waited to pull out of the lot until she was standing next to Eddie who was thoroughly confused now. 

“I thought your dad wanted to meet me.” Piper nodded. 

“He does. Which is why we’re heading to my place next. And be prepared this is gonna get weird fast.” Eddie frowned but got onto his bike with Piper behind him, both wearing their helmets. Her directions led them to a hidden underground parking garage in the middle of Manhattan. She took off her helmet placing it on the back of the bike and holding out a hand. 

“If you’re not too freaked out we can keep going. If you’re freaked out I’ll make your excuses and you can go.” Eddie shook his head. This was his best and oldest friend, just because her new family was odd didn’t mean anything to him. So instead of running at the oddness of the situation and the nearly empty parking garage that they’d needed a code to enter, Eddie followed Piper to the doors of an elevator.


	21. Meeting The Folks

The elevator was sleek and shiny on the inside, streamline and there were no buttons. Eddie glanced at Piper who smiled sheepishly and spoke. 

“Take us to the family floor please.” A British voice rang from no visible speakers Eddie could see. 

“Very well Miss Parker.” The elevator began to move smoothly upwards. Piper fidgeted. 

“So… Um…. You should probably know, my adoptive family is kinda… famous?” Eddie nodded raising an eyebrow slightly. She seemed overly nervous about him meeting her adoptive family. 

“Ok, good to know.” Piper refused to meet his eyes as the elevator continued its upwards climb. Soon the bell dinged and the door opened. Piper stepped out into a spacious and tastefully decorated living room. There was a bar across the room and a matching couch set was set up around a big screen TV. The windows showed an amazing view of New York, the kind Eddie thought you could only get in the Empire State Building. Eddie followed Piper looking out the windows in amazement. Before he could say anything though someone dropped from a ceiling vent to land right in front of him. He yelped as the figure straightened revealing short curly red hair and a slim muscled body clad in head to toe leather. As the woman glared at him another vent opened and a man in a purple slightly torn t-shirt and black jeans landed nimbly on the floor looking miffed. 

“Natasha! We were supposed to go together!” Natasha smirked at Eddie’s terrified face as she answered. 

“I know Clint, but I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity.” Eddie stared, mouth working silently as Piper crossed her arms and glared around the room.

“Anyone else hiding out to scare one of my oldest friends?” After a few seconds of silence one of the three doors out of the room opened and Eddie nearly fell over. Steve Rodgers walked out, his shield in one hand and a bottle of polish in the other. 

“Piper, I see you’ve brought your friend who convinced you to skip class.” Eddie had to sit down hard on the large plush couch.

“Your dad’s Captain America!?” Before Piper could answer a metallic voice came from one of the other entrances to the living room. 

“Worse.” Eddie looked up and fell off the couch. Iron Man stood before him in full armor. The noise he made was something akin to a mouse being stepped on. Piper fearlessly stepped up to the armor and flicked a switch hidden on the side of the armor. The whole thing fell apart leaving a pile of metal pieces on the floor. A voice, normal sounding this time came from the final door off the room.

“Party pooper!” Piper turned to face what appeared to be the kitchen door where a head had popped around the frame. Tony Stark’s head to be specific, wearing something that looked like a sensor on his face.

“The Mark 42.5 really dad?” Another head popped around the corner.

“I told him it was a bad idea.” Piper nodded. 

“Thanks Uncle B, I appreciate that there’s at least one voice of reason in this house.” As Piper spoke the elevator door opened again. 

“Two voices of reason kiddo.” Pepper Potts looked up from her tablet.

“Everyone on the couch please. Tony that includes you.” Piper helped Eddie, who was still stunned, to his feet as the Avengers flopped down on the couch. The only one that wasn’t present was Thor. Piper sat Eddie on the love seat next to the couch that barely fit all of the Avengers. She herself remained standing.

“Alright let’s handle this like adults. Piper introduce us to your friend.” Piper nodded. 

“Eddie this is my family. Uncle Clint, most people call him Hawkeye. Auntie Tasha, the Black Widow. Uncle B, Bruce Banner, the other guy is Uncle H. Uncle Steve, yes Captain America and my dad Tony Stark. Everyone this is Eddie Brock, he’s been my friend since we were kids. And this is Pepper AKA mom-venger.” Pepper grinned at the nickname and nodded at Eddie. After a few seconds he found his voice.

“How…?” Piper’s smile slipped slightly. 

“I told you what happened to my Uncle Ben. Well I was packing up some stuff to take with me to the orphanage after he died and I found my parents will. I was all of eleven at the time so I didn’t really understand a lot of what it said but it listed a couple of guardians. Uncle Ben and Aunt May were first, but Tony Stark was listed after them. Believe me neither of us were really happy about it at first.” Tony leaned forwards and smiled. 

“This was about a year and a half before I became Iron Man. I wasn’t in a good place, I was an emotional mess and an alcoholic. It wasn’t easy but she had nowhere else to go and she’d just lost her whole family. I’d been there, I couldn’t leave her on the curb. Then we found something we have in common. Science.” Piper smiled. 

“Isn’t that the truth. So, he took me in and we both got better as people.” Tony nodded.

“I stopped drinking as much, left off the one night stands. Then when I became Iron Man I realized a lot of things so I made it official, I adopted the squirt.” Piper stuck her tongue out at her dad before turning back to Eddie. 

“We kept it under wraps for a number of reasons. Paparazzi are bloodsucking demons for one. For another it’s dangerous to be and Avengers kid. Dads got a lot of enemies who wouldn’t hesitate to use me against him if they got the chance.” Eddie nodded, he was starting to come down off his shock.

“So, who all knows, if you don’t mind me asking.” Tony nodded. 

“Well, the Avengers of course. You, Piper’s friend Mary Jane Watson and the Osborn brat.” Piper glared at her dad.

“Dad his name’s Harry. He’s a good guy.” Tony rolled his eyes as Clint grinned and leaned closer to Eddie to explain. 

“Norman Osborn and Tony have a business rivalry but when Tony got kidnapped in Afghanistan Osborn’s kid, Harry was there for Piper, kinda kept her on her feet you know? They’ve been buddies ever since much to Tony’s annoyance.” Eddie nodded and raised an eyebrow at Piper.

“But Mr. Osborn’s cool with you two being friends?” Piper nodded. 

“He is. Because he is far more reasonable than dad when it comes to matters outside work.” Tony made a strangled noise as the elevator bell dinged again and a new figure came in carrying Piper’s prizes from Coney Island. Piper stepped forwards and helped un-burry him. 

“You didn’t have to bring these up here alone Happy.” The man, Happy, smiled. 

“Didn’t want you to have to do it yourself, what with introducing a boy to your dad.” Piper blushed slightly but laughed. 

“It’s not like that Happy. This is Eddie, my oldest friend. Eddie this is Happy Hogan, security chief at Stark Industries.” Tony nodded. 

“He’s also one of the only people I trust to pick Piper up and drop her off places. Now about skipping class.” Piper sighed as she set the large plush hulk down on one of the armchairs in the room. Bruce was eyeing the thing like it was a hostile alien and Clint had gone starry eyed looking at it. Piper turned to her dad and Eddie stood ready to tell them the truth that it had been his idea but before he could say anything Tony wrapped Piper in a hug.

“I am so proud of you!” Eddie was very confused. Steve’s eyes narrowed. 

“Tony.” Tony scoffed at Captain America as he released his daughter.

“Oh, come on rebellion at her age is healthy. It could be worse, she could be doing drugs instead of carnival games.” Piper laughed and Pepper and Happy shook their heads in unison apparently used to this behavior. Natasha was cleaning under her nails with a wickedly sharp blade she’d pulled from god knew where. 

“Or she could be a world class assassin, I was at her age.” Clint had made his way over to the large plush Hulk.

“Or she could be a circus rat like me.” Steve turned to Bruce who shrugged. 

“I got nothing, I was a timid science nerd without a degree at her age. Only thing that’s changed is the other guy and I have multiple degrees now.” Piper was bent double laughing at the expression on Steve and Eddie’s face. Eddie was confused to the point that his mouth was just hanging open like he was trying to catch flies. Steve looked miffed but rolled his eyes muttering something about ‘back in my day’ under his breath. Tony joined his daughter in her laughter. Pepper waited until they were calmed down before she spoke. 

“Despite Tony’s opinions the school has seen fit to give you a weeks detention for this little stunt. As far as I know that goes for both of you.” Piper groaned she knew what detention meant for her. It meant training extra hard at SHEILD. Steve looked satisfied with that, likely because he also knew what it meant. Bruce stood. 

“Tough luck kiddo.” He patted Piper on the shoulder and turned to Eddie.

“It was nice to meet you but I have a cellular experiment I need to get back to.” With that he left by the door he’d entered from. Steve sighed and turned to Eddie. 

“Sorry for the scare, it’s traditional. Since we all saw Mary Janes reaction its what we do when Piper brings people home.” Eddie nodded and took the hand that the hero offered. He was a little star struck in all honesty, he couldn’t stop grinning. 

“It’s an honor to meet you sir, seriously you have no idea.” Steve’s smile softened as he shook Eddie’s hand. He then stood and grabbed the polish and his shield. 

“I should probably do this at the kitchen table so none of the polish gets on the rug.” With a nod to the others he too made his exit. Eddie was about to speak when he found himself eye to eye with the Black Widow.

“Hurt her and no one will ever find your body.” He could only nod, but that seemed to satisfy the Widow enough for the moment she nodded curtly and flipped off the couch landing on her feet and sauntering away. Eddie let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. Tony and Clint laughed. Pepper tapped Tony on the shoulder.

“You have a meeting in twenty, go put on a suit.” Tony nodded, hugged his daughter and spoke as he was walking away. 

“No boys on your level Pipes! Feel free to give him the tour.” Piper shook her head as he disappeared through the kitchen. Pepper turned to Eddie and smiled. 

“It was lovely meeting you. It’ll be small by our standards but were having shawarma ordered in for dinner if you would like to stay.” Piper grinned at Eddie who nodded.

“I mean if that’s ok. Pipes and I still have a lot of catching up to do.” Pepper nodded and Clint smiled as Pepper followed Tony out of the room. Happy said his goodbyes and went to get the car ready for Pepper and Tony. 

“So I’m gonna go make some coffee.” Eddie checked his watch.

“Its four in the afternoon.” Piper nodded. 

“Yeah but Uncle Clint lives on that stuff. He drinks more coffee than water.” Clint winked and left the two of them alone in the living room of Avengers tower.


	22. Save The Citizen

Coulson had pulled Piper into detention early the next day. Part of the reason was to chastise her for being irresponsible in skipping class but she just rolled her eyes and sat at her desk waiting to be whisked off to the secret new Helicarier. Not many people knew it had been rebuilt after the disaster that had been the Battle of New York, but it and SHEILD had rebuilt quickly. Coulson finished his tirade and sighed. He set his hands down on the desk.

“Listen that’s not the only reason I called you here. You have more experience than the others and you’ve seen them fight. What do you think?” Piper sighed. 

“Honestly? They aren’t very good, oh they can fight but they are dangerously negligent! They don’t give two shits about civilian safety or the people around them. Several innocent people would have died if I hadn’t pulled them aside and told them to take care of the people and leave the bad guys to me. The words dangerously inexperienced come to mind, undertrained also fits.” Coulson nodded and sighed. 

“As much as I hate to admit it you might be right. It’s part of the reason I told Fury they weren’t ready. He seems to think you’re the key to getting them ready. So, what would you suggest?” Piper thought for a moment before she leaned forwards in her seat. 

“Were gonna need some LMDs.” Piper spent the rest of her detention time reprograming six Life Model Decoys. The SHEILD models were a bit different than the ones she was used to at home, these were programed almost only for combat but the team was already good at fighting, they needed to get good at saving people too. By the time she got home that nights he was exhausted but excited. She’d finally had time to plan her movie night. MJ, Harry and Eddie were already at the tower being regaled with one of her Uncle Clint’s stories when Piper slipped in to the living room. He grinned and waved at her as she flopped down on the couch between MJ and Harry. Harry slung an arm around her.

“Detention ran late?” Piper nodded and fist bumped Eddie. 

“I didn’t see you in detention.” Piper shook her head. 

“You wouldn’t have, they had me working on the computers.” Harry nodded. 

“Makes sense, you are brilliant with computers.” A voice from the doorway made them jump. 

“I have taught my young Padawan well.” MJ barely held in a snicker as Harry carefully removed his arm from around Piper. Tony glared at him for a moment then shook his head. He turned to Clint. 

“We may have a lead on Loki’s scepter, we need you.” Clint nodded. Pepper stepped up beside Tony.

“I’ve ordered pizzas for you guys. I’ll bring them up to you in Piper’s theater.” Piper leapt off the couch and hugged her dad tight.

“Be safe out there ok?” He hugged her back and nodded. 

“I promise.” She let go and hugged Clint and he patted her on the head and headed off with Tony. Moments later they heard a quin jet taking off. Piper sighed, Harry took her hand. She smiled at him. Eddie leaned over to MJ and whispered. 

“Ah so those two are together?” MJ shook her head a small grin sneaking onto her face. 

“Not yet but we’re trying.” Eddie laughed slightly as he and MJ followed Piper and Harry towards the elevator. 

“MJ this is gonna be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. I think they’d be adorable together.” MJ threaded her arm through Eddies.

“I couldn’t agree more. Seriously I’ve been trying to get them together for like a year but something always gets in the way. She’s always so busy.” MJ stopped talking as they went got into the elevator. They made it to Piper’s floor of the building in moments. Eddie hadn’t been allowed up here during his tour of the tower. It was spacious and the main hall was carpeted like the rest of the family floors. Piper and Harry led them to a set of double doors and Piper opened them with a flourish revealing a theater as large as a small independent theater with much plusher chairs. A popcorn machine and fully stocked candy bar sat near the back. Piper flipped on the popcorn machine and turned to the others a grin on her face. 

“So, what movie do you guys want to watch?” 

They were about halfway through the first Lord of The Rings when Piper’s new watch beeped. She excused herself and answered her new SHEILD communicator. 

“Hello?” Sam’s face, mostly hidden behind his helmet, appeared. He was frowning. 

“Where are you webhead?” Piper rolled her eyes.

“I’m at home. It’s my day off dude.” She couldn’t see Sam’s eyes but she was nearly certain that he was rolling them. 

“What part of ‘mandatory training’ don’t you get?” Piper rolled her eyes. 

“What part of ‘I designed the new training’ did Fury not tell you? I’ve been through that ringer already. Good luck though.” Piper hung up and went back to her movie. 

Sam stuck his tongue out at the now dark communicator on his wrist and turned back to the doors to the training hall. He shook his head at the others. White Tiger huffed, Power Man rolled his eyes and Iron Fist spoke.

“So, I take it the Spider will not be joining us?” Nova shook his head as the doors on the other side of the room slid open and Agent Coulson walked through them, a tablet in his hand. 

“Spidergirl will not be joining us tonight. She has other training she’s been doing. Today’s exercise is new and based on your less than satisfactory performance against the Frightful Four. It’s called Save the Citizen.” The holo-projectors came to life and the room transformed into a street in Queens. It was completely empty for the moment. Coulson continued. 

“The goal is simple. Save the citizens. Each of you will take turns on the course and attempt to save your citizens while defeating your foe. Get hit three times by your opponent and you’re out. Lose a single citizen and you’re out.” They nodded. White Tiger went first, she did alright for the first five minutes of the fight but a piece of falling debris crushed one of the citizens and she was out. Power Man went next, he saved his citizens but got hit three times by the simulation of Klaw. He only lasted a few minutes longer than White Tiger. Iron Fist went next and was all of two seconds too late to save one of his citizens. Nova took a deep breath. If the webhead had designed this he could get through this. He took off blasting a piece of debris thrown at him by the simulations Thundra. He swooped down and snatched a citizen out of the way of one of Klaws blasts, everything was going great until one of the citizens pushed another out of the way of one of Wizards blasts. The citizen who’d saved the other one took the blast straight to the chest and in that moment Nova saw her face illuminated by the blast. Chestnut hair cut short flying around a pale face, big blue eyes wide with pain. He didn’t even notice the LMD of Klaw leveling his blaster at him. He took the shot to his back and went spinning into the wall as the simulation began to break down. He pulled himself up to his knees and looked to his left where the LMD that had been Piper lay smoking, the holo-imaging that gave the LMD’s the appearance of human beings seemed to be malfunctioning on this particular model because it was flickering in and out. One moment it was the plain SHIELD LMD that Nova was used to fighting, the next it was the empty face of his new teammate. Coulson stepped into the room as Nova pulled himself the rest of the way to his feet. 

“The hell was that Coulson?” Coulson gave the smoking LMD a cursory glance. 

“A twist in the programing. Real life doesn’t follow rules. Training shouldn’t either.” Nova shook himself, eyes avoiding the LMD on the ground as the others entered. Power Man frowned. 

“But why did the simulation end when he got hit instead of her?” He gestured at the still smoking robot. Coulson fiddled with the tablet in his hand.

“That would be part of the programing. Several of the Citizen LMD’s are programed as the civilian identities of heroes. Make it past seven minutes the training gets harder, the out of costume heroes intervene and get themselves hurt or killed. I didn’t expect you to make it past seven minutes on the first run.” Nova nodded staring at his shoes. Normally he’d be ecstatic, gloating that he’d made it longer than the others had but something about the sight of Piper, not Spidergirl, but Piper getting blasted made him feel nauseous. 

“Once you hit the seven-minute mark the goal shifts, save the citizens, get the out of costume heroes away so they can safely change into their hero identities and defeat your foe. If you last ten minutes and get the out of costume hero out of the way then you get a bonus, the hero you rescued joins you in the fight but the fight then gets twice as hard. The programing is in all honesty brilliant.” Doctor Conners entered the room with a tool kit as Coulson finished. 

“He’s right, its insanely sophisticated and the coding can adapt to the difficulty level in seconds and even improvise. I may take the rest of the LMD’s into the lab and see if I can get Spidergirl to retrofit the rest of them in a similar fashion.” Power Man’s eyebrow shot up. 

“Spidey did this?” Coulson nodded. 

“She did. She has more experience in the field than any of you. She knows how to fight on the fly, she might do way too much collateral damage to buildings and property but she has yet to lose a civilian during one of her fights.” Nova and the other members of the team were silent. 

“I believe I was right when I said we shouldn’t judge this particular book by her cover.” Iron Fist said calmly as Doc Conners got to work repairing the LMD’s for another round. Nova nodded but couldn’t resist adding his own opinion to Danny’s statement. 

“No matter how dorky the cover might be.” White Tiger snorted in amusement and soon they were back on the rotation each trying to last longer than the other at this new challenge. Nova beat his own time the second time around but got hit a third time trying to fly Piper’s LMD out of the way, this time of Klaw. He couldn’t help but think that he’d rather he got hit than have to see her face looking dead on the LMD again even as he rubbed his side where a massive bruise was growing.


	23. Why

Movie night had gone off well, even if there had been a struggle for the remote at one point. Pepper had brought them several large pizzas about halfway through Fellowship of the Ring. Piper was the only one who liked Hawaiian so she got a pizza to herself which was good because ever since she was bitten by the spider she’d had a faster metabolism than most, not nearly as fast as Uncle Steve or Uncle Bruce but fast enough. MJ was staying the night and fell asleep about halfway through the Two Towers. Harry was having his driver drop Eddie home after he took Harry home since Harry was closer. They couldn’t stay as Tony had a strict rule about boys sleeping over in the tower, it was Tony’s only strict rule. Once Piper had helped MJ to the spare room she always used and bid the boys goodnight, escorting them out of the tower she snuck off into her room and changed into her costume. She had a linkup to the police radios that she’d rigged up in her lab. She turned it on and listened for a moment before she flicked it back off pulled on her mask and slowly opened her window. These windows on the thirtieth floor of what had started as an office building hadn’t originally been intended to be opened but Piper had made some modifications after she’d gotten her powers, including hacking into JARVIS and reprograming him to ignore her comings and goings as Spidergirl, she’d also snuck her father’s back up AI’s and implanted a similar subroutine in each just in case. She swung off to intercept a heist in progress. Someone on one of the lower levels of the tower watched Spidergirl swing away and shook her head, long strawberry blonde hair falling into her face. 

Piper intercepted the man as he leapt away from the jewelry store. She swung in, snatched the bag out of his hand and dropped it to the angry store clerk below who caught it out of sheer surprise. Piper flipped midair and kicked the man in the side sending him flying onto a nearby roof. She spotted a streak of light but paid it no mind as she landed on the roof. The man she’d kicked was familiar, she’d fought him before. He called himself Batrock the Leaper. Out of curiosity she’d checked to see if any of the villains she normally fought had SHEILD files. Not many did, the frightful four did but Batrock’s was so small it wasn’t even really a file. All it did was say that he was French and leapt using likely stolen tech that he wore on his legs. He was also pretty strong for someone who wasn’t a mutate, mutant or even physically enhanced. 

“Batrock, don’t you know this is my neighborhood? You’d think after getting your butt handed to you by me a few times you’d know better.” He groaned and pulled himself to his feet. Piper dropped flat to the roof as he leapt at her face. A blast of light came from her left and knocked Batrock off his feet. She turned, Nova was floating at the edge of the roof. She rolled her eyes under her mask and dodged right as Batrocks foot filled the space that had seconds before been where the back of her head was. She elbowed him in the thigh and shot a line of web behind her sticking his other foot to the roof. 

“Sup lightbulb?” Nova shook his head. 

“You weren’t at training webs.” Spidergirl nodded. 

“You already knew that though Bucket head. You’re hear about Save the Citizen, aren’t you?” Nova nodded as Batrock pulled a knife and sliced through the webbing. Piper dropped into a perfect split as Batrock attempted to grab her from behind. She spun on her hands and knocked him off his feet before webbing both of his arms to the roof then his legs. 

“Seriously dude just stay down.” She shot at Batrock before turning back to Nova. “So, are you just gonna float there or are you gonna ask questions?” There were so many questions Nova wanted to ask. How did she know more heroes’ identities than he did? What was her SHEILD clearance, could it already be higher than his? How the hell did she program twelve LMD’s in less than three hours? But he wasn’t sure where to start so he asked a simple if vague question. 

“Why?” Piper sighed and tapped the side of her web shooter, a small key pad popped up and she typed out a quick message. A piece of webbing shot out of the base of her web shooter and Piper stuck it to Batrock’s forehead. It read, ‘Careful of the legs on this one. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spidergirl.’ She webbed his legs down a few more times just to be safe. Nova tapped his foot on thin air until Spidey raised an eyebrow under her mask at him and he stopped. She stepped up in front of him.

“Not here, come on I’m starving.” Nova raised an eyebrow at her but let her lead him further into Queens. She climbed down the side of a building that had a deli at street level, the sign above the store read Delmar’s and it was still open, even at nearly midnight. Painted in one of the windows was a small circle that had Piper’s mask painted in it. Nova raised an eyebrow but floated into the store after her. She didn’t remove her mask but the man behind the counter smiled. 

“Spidey! Good to see you! The usual?” Piper nodded. 

“Can we make it two Mr. Delmar? Extra Pickles on mine, please. And squash it as flat as you can.” The other man behind the counter nodded and Piper reached for the waist of her suit. Mr. Delmar shook his head.

“Don’t you dare hero. You saved my life and my store you don’t pay here. That’s what that symbol in my window is for.” Piper frowned behind her mask. 

“But I usually only get one… I don’t wanna trouble you.” Mr. Delmar shook his head again. 

“Any friend of yours is a friend of mine Spidey. Don’t worry about it.” Piper grinned under her mask and moved off to the side to pet the cat that lay on the counter. She motioned Nova over.

“Nova this is Mr. Delmar, and this is Claude his cat.” Dr. Delmar smiled and held out a hand to Nova. 

“I meant that, any friend of Spidergirl’s is a friend of mine. She saved my life when someone was trying to rob my store. I didn’t think anyone was gonna help cause none of those big-time heroes’ care about the little people like me. But she swooped in and saved my life and my store. She comes by to check on me every so often since, and now I got a rule in my store. Heroes eat free, whatever they want.” Nova was a bit surprised but he shook the man’s hand, careful to turn down the glow a bit as he did, he didn’t want to burn him.

“Also, he’s got the best sandwiches in Queens.” Mr. Delmar grinned and thanked her. Sandwiches were handed over to Spidey and she handed them to Nova and fist bumped Mr. Delmar. She swung off after thanking him again but she only pulled herself out of the building waiting for Nova. She printed another of her web notes, this one read ‘Thanks Mr. Delmar. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spidergirl.’ She stuck it to the outside window after pulling a hundred-dollar bill from a small compartment on a hidden belt she wore under the top of her costume. Then she swung away. As she paused on the roof across the street Nova spotted Mr. Delmar coming out of the store. He grinned and waved at the hero across the street. She waved back and then swung off Nova hot on her heels the bag still in his hands.

Piper stopped nearly six blocks away and sat down on the edge of an apartment building. Nova hovered awkwardly, the plastic bag still in his hands. Piper patted the stones next to her and Nova took her invitation and sat down next to her. She took the bag and handed him a sandwich taking out a flattened one for herself. She pulled up her mask so the edge sat on the bridge of her nose and frowned. There was still something in the bag. She reached in and pulled out two brownies. Her grin nearly split her face. Nova was getting very confused. 

“You never answered my question. Why did you create Save the Citizen?” Piper had taken a big bite of her sandwich so she took a moment to chew before she responded. She pointed across the street where a bank sat. 

“See that bank?” Nova nodded. 

“I tried to stop a heist there once.” Nova’s eyebrows rose. 

“Tried.” Piper nodded.

“Tried, I failed because Thundra threw an ATM and part of a wall at this little family of three. The mother was pregnant at the time. They put in the paper that the family named the little boy Der, cause Spider.” She turned and pointed towards an alley a bit farther away from them. 

“I stopped a mugging there. This older lady was trying to get her groceries home when these two teens jumped her. I got there in time and she didn’t get hurt so that was good. I helped her carry her groceries home. Her name is Pearl, her grandkids don’t call her nearly often enough and whenever it gets cold she leaves hats and scarves for me on her fire escape. She knits them herself. She reminds me of my Aunt May.” Nova was seriously confused now. 

“Ok that still doesn’t answer my question.” Piper sighed and took another bite of her sandwich. She chewed slowly and then spoke again. 

“I created Save the Citizen because life is important. Too many heroes take the little things for granted. We can’t do that. If we do we’ll forget why we started this in the first place. I don’t really know your stories, how any of the rest of the team got started, but I started to honor the memory of someone I lost. Of everyone I’ve ever lost. I can’t honor them if I just beat the bad guy. It’s not enough, I have to remember to protect the people who can’t protect themselves.” Nova was a little stunned. He’d been starting to think that she’d created it to make her teammates look silly. But looking at her now he saw something in the small bit of her face he could see, he could almost call it determination but there was something else too. An almost melancholy expression sat on the face of this normally upbeat hero. He was starting to see why Fury put her in charge. She checked the watch function on her communicator. It was nearly one am. She stood. 

“Well I need to get home before someone realizes I’m gone. Think about what I said Nova. Think about why you’re in this business.” She rewrapped what remained of her sandwich and one of the brownies and tucked them away in her belt. He frowned slightly as she finished making sure nothing would fall. She smiled at him before she pulled down her mask. 

“Don’t let that sandwich go to waste. Seriously, best sandwich in Queens. I’ll see you tomorrow Nova.” With that she swung off, leaving Nova alone with his thoughts.


	24. Fitness Test

Piper rolled her eyes as everyone laughed at Flash’s joke at her expense. She spotted her team across the cafeteria and made her way over to them. Sam scooted over and Piper sat down next to him smiling slightly. She nudged him slightly. 

“Good job with Batrock the leaper last night.” Sam shook his head hiding a slight smile as he replied. 

“The only thing you’ve been right about so far is that sandwich, best I’ve had in a long time.” Piper grinned and held out her hand for a fist bump. Sam grudgingly obliged and the rest of the team stared. Danny grinned and shook his head slightly as Acting Principle Coulson began to speak again. 

“And lastly due to an unfortunate accident your regular gym teacher Mr. Molskin will be in the hospital for the foreseeable future. This is your temporary gym teacher Mr. Jaeger.” A tall man in shorts and a tank top with a sweat band around his head smiled from the corner and stepped forwards. 

“I look forward to unlocking each of your hidden talents.” Piper frowned. 

“Did that sound like a veiled threat to anyone else?” The others at the table shrugged and Piper waved at Harry as he slipped into the room. He grinned and made his way over as Acting Principle Coulson finished his announcements. MJ joined them at the table and grinned at Piper. She leaned around Harry and spoke. 

“Did you guys hear? There’s a rumor going around that Spider-girl really does go to this school.” Piper laughed trying to hide any of her nervousness. 

“Yeah right, why would Spidey ever go to school in the first place?” Harry shrugged. 

“I don’t know Piper, it’s kinda cool to think that there might be a superhero at our school.” Piper shrugged. Harry laughed. 

“Of course, you wouldn’t think it was that cool.” Piper giggled as the bell rang and they headed off to their classes.

If there was one thing in school Piper absolutely hated it was gym class. She’d always hated gym, originally it had been because she wasn’t very good at it. Then when she hit high school it was because she was teased because she wasn’t as fit as some of the other girls. But now she hated gym for an entirely different reason. She could easily beat the course that was currently being explained by a pre-recorded image of her Uncle Steve easily. With barely any effort she could ace gym like she aced her other classes but she chose not to. She chose to suck at gym to keep people safe, to keep her identity a secret. The good feeling, she got from doing the right thing didn’t make getting nailed in the head with a dodgeball thrown by Liz Allen any more fun though. Sam laughed and picked up the ball. 

“Is that your face print Parker?” He laughed as he held out a hand to her and helped her to her feet as Mr. Jaeger blew his whistle. 

“Alright enough messing around! This test is also to determine who the school will send to the all-state championships for the Captain America Fitness test.” Piper frowned, that didn’t make sense. Since when was there a competition for this? She couldn’t remember one.

“We only have one available position. Let’s get started!” He had the boys run the course first, then the girls. Piper couldn’t help but shiver as he looked over the girls while Sam finished his run of the course. He was freaking creepy. Sam danced over to her with a grin on his face. 

“Bet you can’t beat that time Parker.” Piper rolled her eyes as the girls started going through the course. 

“I could beat your time if I wanted to Bucket head. I don’t want to. It’d give away too much.” Sam shook his head as Piper rolled her eyes at her. 

“Come on webs, let’s see you do it.” Mr. Jaeger shouted from across the gym. 

“Parker are you gonna stand there all day? Run the course!” Piper frowned and stretched. She could easily flip and climb this course faster than even Ava who had the best score so far but she didn’t. Instead she faked struggling up the wall and gingerly climbing down before pretending to slip and fall. Mr. Jaeger sighed and checked his clipboard. 

“Alright, Watson, Allen, Ayala you three will come in tomorrow to run the course again, and find out which one of you makes the cut. Everyone else, anemic.” Sam made an annoyed sound. 

“What! I aced that course! Come on Coach.” Piper shook her head. Sam made an angry noise as he stomped back over to her. 

“Come on Parker, I wanna see if I can beat your time when you’re really trying.” Piper shook her head. 

“Sam, I don’t want to compete with you it’s stupid.” Sam rolled his eyes. 

“Come on, we’ll come back tomorrow after they’re done nobody has to know.” Piper rolled her eyes again as Danny and Luke headed off to the locker rooms. Ava was dancing around apparently happy to be picked. 

“Sam, you can run that course tomorrow, but you’re gonna have to do it without me. I have things to do tomorrow.” Tomorrow was the day she had set aside for her training with Uncle Clint, also sleep. Sam rolled his eyes. 

“Can’t take a challenge eh Parker?” Piper flipped him off as she left for the locker room. The rest of the school day passed in a blur and soon she was being pulled into detention and whisked off to the Helicarier. This time Doctor Conners met her in the main hanger. She smiled under her mask as he dragged her off to a different lab. This one was full of deactivated LMD’s Piper raised an eyebrow under her mask. 

“What’s up Doc?” Doctor Conners turned to her. 

“This is your lab. I managed to convince director Fury to give you your own space to work because of the number of Life Model Decoys that need reprograming. I went over the coding and it is a work of genius! Have you ever taken an IQ test Spider-girl?” Piper nodded. 

“I have actually, Reed Richards had me take one. I scored just a few points over what he got at the same age. That was about a year ago.” Doctor Conners smiled and nodded. 

“That is quite impressive but not too surprising. We need to reprogram these LMD’s so they meet the same requirements for Save the Citizen that the one’s you’ve already reprogramed meet.” Piper nodded. 

“Shouldn’t be too hard, we just have to clone the programing from one of the ones I’ve already reprogramed.” Doctor Conners nodded and left to get one of the LMD’s she’d already reprogramed. Piper grinned and began to take apart the backs of the heads of the LMD’s in the room.


	25. Stuck At School

Piper slept in to about ten the next morning. She changed into her workout clothes and met her Uncle Clint in the shooting range. He handed her one of his spare compound bows. 

“Alright Baby Bug this one’s a test of control more than a test of strength. You need to not break that bow. The draw on it is only 150 pounds, it’s pretty small. But you also need to hit your target. Don’t worry about us getting caught at this your dad is out at a Stark Industries event in Washington.” Piper nodded and Clint hit the switch to start the targets moving. Piper took a deep breath and carefully pulled back, it took concentration to not pull the bow too hard and break the string. She aimed and fired, grabbing another arrow out of the quiver on her back and firing again. She continued, spinning and leaping into the air as Clint upped the difficulty. She flipped and released just hitting the outer edge of her target. Clint stopped the movement of the targets and smiled. 

“You’re getting better Baby Bug.” She had hit almost all of her targets this time only missing six out of thirty. She whipped her brow. 

“Yeah Webs are a bit more forgiving than arrows, wider surface range for a hit.” Clint nodded a grin on his face. 

“I know Baby Bug. Your Uncle Steve wanted to see you in your gym when you were done here.” Piper nodded, hugged Clint and headed off. Her watch beeped but she ignored it, Fury knew she was training with the avengers right now. She made it up to her level and skipped into her gym. 

“Hey Uncle Steve!” He was standing next to her weights. They were a similar design to the ones he had in his private gym, they could be adjusted mechanically to simulate any weight. He smiled at her. 

“Come on over Piper, we’re gonna up your weights today.” Piper grinned and slid onto the bench laying back and wrapping her hands around the bar. She was up to one thousand five hundred pounds. Steve flicked on the machine. Piper had helped him learn how to use it. Tony had tried but he was too condescending. 

“We’re gonna start you at one thousand today, see if we can work you up to 18 today.” Piper grinned and nodded beginning her chest presses with her Uncle Steve spotting for her, moving the weights up by a hundred pounds every ten minutes or so. She’d hit one thousand seven hundred when her watch started beeping. She ignored it again letting it ring through. Then it began beeping again and she sighed. Steve switched off the machine and Piper answered her communicator. It was Sam. 

“What do you want Bucket head?” 

“Where are you Webs?” Piper rolled her eyes. 

“I’m at home I told you I have stuff to do today, I don’t have time for your stupid competition.” Nova shook his head.

“Listen to me of a minute Webs! I’m at the school, came to see if I could beat Ava’s time since you’re being a spoilsport about it. It’s nearly noon and no one’s come out from the gym and the fence is electrified. Something doesn’t feel right.” Piper slid out from under the bar and sat up. 

“What do you mean the fence is electrified I’ve been going there for almost three years, that fence isn’t capable of being electrified.” Nova rolled his eyes and shook his head. 

“SHEILD put in new security systems since they had a team at the school now, but I think they might be malfunctioning.” Piper frowned. 

“Do you want me to come out there?” Nova rolled his eyes again and nodded. 

“Yeah, I already called Iron Fist, he’s on his way. Power Man is stuck in extra training today. Hate to say it but if Ava, Liz and Mary Jane are trapped inside we might need your help. I tried Coulson but I can’t get through to him.” Piper nodded and stood. 

“I’m on my way.” Sam nodded and hung up. Piper turned to Steve worry plain in her big blue eyes. 

“Everything ok?” He asked and Piper shook her head.

“No, MJ might be in trouble. I need to go.” Steve nodded as Piper raced off away from the gym throwing off her tank top as she went. She skidded into her room and yanked on her costumes top and hooked her hidden belt around her waist. She yanked on the bottoms and grabbed her gloves pulling one on and yanking on her mask. She vaulted up the side of the building to the roof where she’d stashed her Spider-cycle. She pushed it to the limits as she sped across town to Midtown High. It took her five minutes to get to the school and somewhere in the back of her mind she was debating riding the Spider-Cycle to school every day, but no that would give away too much. She got there two minutes before Danny did. He leapt off a roof into an alley across from the school. Piper followed him parking her bike behind a dumpster in front of Sam who was in everything of his costume but his helmet. Danny handed over the golden helm and he slipped it on. Only then did he start glowing. Piper filed that away and spoke.

“Alright Nova what’s going on here?” Nova glidded across the street and nodded to the fence. He grabbed a rock off the sidewalk and tossed it into the fence. It sizzled and fell to dust on the other side. Piper whistled. 

“Ok don’t touch the fence I guess.” Piper took a few steps back and effortlessly flipped over the fencing. She landed softly on the other side. Nova flew after her, Iron Fist flipping with him. 

“Alright oh mighty team leader what do we do.” Piper adjusted one of her gloves. 

“You’re probably right about it being a malfunctioning security system. If I can get to the main controls I can do a hard reset, should fix the problem. But there’s only one problem. I don’t know where the main controls are.” Nova nodded and turned to Iron Fist.

“They are most likely in Principle Coulson’s office.” Spidey nodded and turned back to the school. 

“Alright then, safest way to do this is to split up. Iron Fist you go to the gym and make sure everyone’s ok. Nova you’re with me, we’re gonna get in as close as we can to Principle Coulson’s office but we’re likely gonna have to fight through at least some of the malfunctioning security system.” Nova nodded and the group split, Danny heading for the gym doors and Piper and Sam headed for the south entrance. They slipped in easily enough and that made Piper frown a bit. 

“Who electrifies a fence and leaves the door unlocked?” Nova shrugged and the raced off. Piper called out a warning as her spider sense went crazy and pulled Nova aside as the trophy case turned impossibly and began spitting trophies at them. 

“Will you listen to me for once lightbulb!?” He looked a bit amazed under his mask. 

“How did you know that was going to happen?” 

“I have this sense that goes off when there’s danger, I call it my spidey-sense, it boarders on precognition.” Nova raised an eyebrow then remembered that she couldn’t see his eyebrows.

“What?” 

“I can sense danger before it happens ok.” Nova shrugged lightly, he’d heard weirder. Her powers were just getting cooler by the day though and he couldn’t help but feel like it really wasn’t fair. He followed her down the hall. They heard a manly cry for help a few halls over and Spidey immediately detoured. Nova swore and followed. They found Stan the janitor pinned to the wall by a large metal claw. Piper grabbed the claw and pulled, Nova pulling Stan out of harms way. Once he was safe Piper let go of the claw and it slammed into the wall.

“Mucho malfunctioning security system, you should get out of the building as soon as possible.” Stan nodded and grabbed his mop before taking Spidey’s advice and heading for the exit. Spidey leapt up the wall and raced along the ceiling Nova flying along next to her.

“Why do you like the ceiling so much?” Piper shrugged as she continued to run, leaping over light fixtures.

“I don’t know, it’s just more comfortable.” She flipped off the ceiling landing on the floor in front of Coulson’s office. The door was shut and locked. Piper yanked hard and the door knob came off in her hand.

“Somebody really doesn’t want us getting in there. Can you blast down the door without hurting anything or anyone on the other side?” Nova nodded and melted the hinges and doorknob the door fell inwards revealing a sight Piper was certain she was never gonna be able to unsee. Agent Coulson was stripped to his tidey whities dangling above a vat of what looked like acid. 

“Stop! Don’t come in here.” Piper covered her eyes and shot a web at the top of the acid vat, covering the dangerous liquid.

“Appreciated Spider-girl but you need to get out of here now, both of you. Taskmaster had corrupted the security system.” Piper raised an eyebrow.

“Who is Taskmaster?” Coulson continued. 

“He’s a mercenary for hire, hates me, hates Fury. Highly trained tactition and weapons expert, he’s also a combat chameleon.” Piper couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What was he bit by a radioactive chameleon or something?” Nova rolled his eyes. 

“Bug brain you are such a dork.” There was a loud female scream and Piper whirled. 

“MJ!” She raced off, Nova swearing and following. Neither of them heard Agent Coulson shout after them.

“Do not fight Taskmaster! He sees you do it he can do it!”


	26. Fight or Flight

Spidey let go of her webline as the gun in Taskmaster’s hand blew letting herself fall to the floor three stories below. She cried out as she felt her shoulder pop out of its socket. Nova swooped in snatching her off the ground and flying a few hallways away before he set her down. 

“Hold on Bug Brain, I need to reset your shoulder.” Piper nodded.

“Just do it.” Nova pushed hard and Piper stifled a scream as her bone slid back into place. Nova was breathing hard too, he stepped back and slammed his fist into the wall. 

“Shit, what do we do? Danny’s down for the count, Ava and MJ are still trapped in that net and freaking Liz Allen is stuck in your locker! All the training and equipment from SHIELD, useless.” Piper glanced around taking note that they were in the gym where the obstacle course was still set up. Everything hurt, her shoulder was throbbing and so was her head. But she was still thinking, she had a lot of experience thinking on her feet. She grabbed a ball off the rack of dodge balls and spun it in her hands.

“He can mimic what we do, so lets do what we don’t.” Nova frowned.

“That wont work webs, even if we’re not doing what we normally do he’ll see it and be able to do it too.” Piper grinned under her mask. 

“What if he doesn’t see it?” She held up her hands, now empty of the ball she’d been holding moments before. She looked down, Nova followed her example and saw the dodge ball between his team leaders legs. He snorted a laugh. 

“That’s crazy webs. Also I glow! How are you gonna get around that?” She thought for a minute. 

“What if we both glowed? In the dark a dim glow isn’t gonna help identify who it is doing what.” Nova nodded.

“Ok but how are you gonna glow?” Piper grinned and they crept to the school lab. With a simple yank she broke the lock on the chemical cabinet and grabbed a few different beakers. She mixed them and held it up to Nova. It was a little dimmer than him but she was short on time. She held her breath and dumped the contents of the mixture over her head. She spread it all over her suit until she had a dim glow just like Nova. He frowned. 

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Piper shrugged. 

“I mean it’s basically just luminescent phosphorus. As long as I stay away from open flames I should be fine.” Nova shook his head. 

“We’ll need something out of my locker too if this is gonna work since I’m assuming you can’t see well in the dark.” Nova nodded.

“Alright.” They crept through the halls and Piper popped open her locker. Liz Allen almost fell out sobbing.

“It’s ok! You’re gonna be ok miss. Listen I need you to stay here, you’ll be safer. We’ll come get you when we’ve taken down the bad guy, ok?” Liz nodded and hugged her before slipping back into the locker.

“It’s gonna be ok. I promise.” Piper snatched something out of the locker and gently closed the door again. They carefully ran back to the gym. Nova shook his head. 

“How do you do that?” Piper handed him one of her web shooters and showed him how to use it before she answered. 

“Do what?” Nova shook his head.

“Be so nice to someone who is literally one of the worst people I’ve ever met.” Piper sighed. 

“She’s pretty horrible. She’s literally put my bra in the freezer three times, at school, I didn’t think it was possible. But she’s still a person, no matter how much she bullies me. Everybody deserves to feel safe.” Nova nodded and Piper straightened. 

“Alright let’s set this plan in motion. I’ll lure him into the gym. You hit the lights ok.” Nova grabbed her hand as she made to leave.

“Be safe Spidey.” She nodded and he let go. She raced off and Nova began rearranging things in the gym. Spidey figured if he could memorize moves he could memorize other things too. He just hoped she was right and this would work. 

 

Danny groaned and pulled himself off the floor. The man in the mask had been able to mimic his moves. He needed to get the students out and find Nova and Spider-girl. He heard a familiar voice calling for help and took off down the hallway. He found Ava and Mary Jane trapped in a net hanging from the ceiling. He carefully cut them down and caught both girls. MJ wrapped her arms around him and tried not to cry. Iron fist set Ava down. 

“What’s happening here?” He asked and MJ shook her head. Ava took a deep breath and explained that their new gym teacher was in fact the supervillain known as Taskmaster. 

“He’s looking for Spider-girl. He thought it was one of us. Or Liz. She took off running. We don’t know where she is.” Danny nodded. He’d been taught to sense life energy as part of his training in Kun Lun, he could sense everyone in the high school, there were seven people in the school. Three of them were in the gym, one was in Principle Coulson’s office and the other was a few hallways away. That had to be Liz, Coulson was likely in his office and the one’s in the gym had the brighter aura’s of people with enhanced abilities. One of them was brighter than the others and a slightly different color but he didn’t have time to think about it. 

“Come with me.” The girls nodded and followed Danny down the halls. He reached the locker and realized that it was Piper’s. MJ realized this at the same time. 

“Hang on I know her combination.” She stepped in front of the locker and undid the lock. Liz fell out hugging the closest person to her which happened to be MJ. MJ patted her awkwardly on the back.

“It’s ok Liz.” Liz finally looked up and frowned. 

“You’re not Spider-girl.” MJ shook her head. 

“It looks like none of us were Spider-girl.” Liz nodded.

“Of course not, Spidey’s way too cool to go to school in this dump. But she’s here fighting that horrible gym teacher. Also she was glowing which was new.” MJ grinned still looking slightly shaken up smiled slightly and pulled her phone out of her pocket. 

“Spidey here at Midtown High, again? Once in this town is coincidence twice is a pattern! Come on!” There was a large crash from the nearby gym and MJ took off in that direction. Liz followed her and Ava shook her head at Iron Fist before taking off after them. 

They reached the gym in time to hear Nova laugh and speak.

“Now I know why you use these, this is fun!” There was the sound of Spider-girl’s webbing shooting and a feminine laugh. Iron Fist hit the lights. Spider-girl and Nova were standing in front of a crater in the bleachers that was covered in webbing holding down Taskmaster. 

“It’s not too late Spider-girl, you could still join me.” Spider-girl put her hand on her hip. 

“You might think I’m a loser Tasky but I don’t.” He growled then laughed. 

“Then I’ll just reveal your identity to the world Liz Allen!” Spider-girl raised an eyebrow and stepped aside as she spoke. 

“What Liz Allen, that Liz Allen?” Liz waved.

“The name might be Spider-GIRL Jaeger but I’m older than I look. And this school is under my protection just like the rest of the city.” Then she knelt down so she was a bit closer to him and couldn’t be heard as easily by the civilians behind Nova but Nova heard her clearly.

“And you can tell your employer I’m coming for him next. He messed with the wrong Spider, so now I’m gonna find him and I’m gonna take him down.” Nova felt a shudder run down his spine at her words. She was serious, and sounded calm and collected instead of intensely angry. Taskmaster laughed.

“It’s a shame you refused to join me Spider-girl. You’d have made an excellent assassin.” He dropped a smoke bomb and everyone in the room coughed and swatted at the smoke. It cleared and there was a mask remaining in the spot Taskmaster had been. It was Mr. Jaeger’s face. Piper frowned and picked it up. Nova stepped forwards and for the first time Iron Fist noticed that he was wearing one of Spider-girls masks. 

“How many masks can one guy wear?” Spidey glanced over her shoulder and laughed. 

“Yeah glow stick, I wonder.” Sam blushed under his helmet and pulled off the spare mask handing it back to Spider-girl. 

“Do you think he’ll be back with another face?” Danny asked moving forwards. Spider-girl shook her head. 

“No. He knows what would be waiting for him.”


	27. Truth

Piper ‘arrived’ at the school ten minutes after the ambulance and SHIELD rolled up to find out what had happened. Ava and Liz were answering questions while MJ sat in the back of an ambulance getting checked by one of the paramedics. Piper waited as patiently as she could before rushing up to her best friend and hugging her tight. MJ wrapped her arms around her friend. 

“I’m ok Piper. I’m ok.” Piper sniffled in her shoulder. 

“I’m glad you’re ok MJ.” MJ smiled and pulled her phone out of her pocket. 

“I got a few minutes of footage though, Spidergirl and Nova. Also Iron Fist saved us!” Piper raised an eyebrow. 

“Oh? Who’s that?” MJ laughed and began to explain while showing Piper the small amount of footage she’d gotten. Piper frowned. 

“Since when does Spider-girl glow?” MJ frowned too. 

“Not sure, maybe it was just a chemical trick.” Piper shrugged.

“Could be, luminescent phosphorous would be my best guess. It would be the easiest and safest to make with what’s available in the chem lab.” MJ flipped her phone and began to write down what Piper was theorizing. Piper shook her head.

“Of course, that’s all theory, I’d need a sample to be able to find out what it actually is.” MJ nodded and grinned. 

“Yeah but from you? I’m gonna trust your judgment, you’re practically a certified genius anyway.” Piper laughed as Sam and Ava came over to them. Ava hugged MJ. 

“Thanks for what you did back there MJ. I owe you one.” MJ shook her head. 

“Nah, a friend of Piper’s is a friend of mine.” Piper’s phone began to ring and she stepped aside to answer it. It was her father.

“Hi dad!” Tony breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Piper are you at your school?” Piper shook her head, for someone so smart her father was almost always a bit slow on the uptake. 

“Yeah, I head what was happening from Uncle Clint’s SHIELD radio. I came to check on MJ. Everything’s fine though. Spider-girl, Iron Fist and that weird bucket headed guy saved them.” Sam stuck out his tongue at her. MJ mouthed ‘Nova’ at her. 

“MJ says his name is Nova.” Piper could practically hear Tony shaking his head. 

“Are you sure you don’t wanna go to private school Pipes? There are too many things happening at your school these days.” Piper stepped a bit further away from the group. 

“No dad, I’m not going to private school. I like Midtown High.” Tony sighed.

“Fine.” There was a noise like an explosion from his end of the line.

“Dad? Everything ok?” Piper was under the impression her father was in Washington not out on a mission. 

“Yeah Pipes. The Avengers got a tip about a buried AIM base. Thought they might have Loki’s scepter but no luck, just bombs.” Piper flinched as another explosion ended the call. She swore under her breath and hit a button on her phone. JARVIS answered immediately. 

‘Miss Parker what can I do for you?’

“JARVIS check on dad please, he got cut off mid call. Is he ok?” There was a momentarily pause. 

‘He is alright Miss Parker. He and the other Avengers are currently in a skirmish with AIM scientists. The explosion knocked out his com unit, nothing more. He asks that you inform Miss Pots so as to prevent him getting in trouble again.’ Piper laughed. 

“I’ll do that Jarvis. Thank you.” She disconnected the call and turned back to the others. Danny and Ava were trying to look like they weren’t listening in but MJ and Sam were unabashed in their interest. MJ laid a hand on her shoulder.

“He ok?” She nodded and hugged her friend. 

“He’s gonna be ok, I hope. I need to call Pep, but maybe after we can go for ice cream?” MJ nodded. Piper pulled up her contacts and clicked on Pepper.

“Hey Piper, everything ok?” Piper nodded.

“Everything’s ok. Dad got called out on a mission and his com unit got knocked out. JARVIS says he’s ok. He wanted me to let you know so he doesn’t get in trouble again.” Pepper laughed. 

“Well I’m glad somebody let me know. I heard about what happened at your school today, everyone alright?” Piper nodded.

“Everything’s fine Pep. MJ and a couple of my other buddies and I are gonna go out for ice cream.” 

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll send Happy with the van.” Piper thought about it for a minute, glancing over at Danny, Sam and Ava. They had no idea who her father was. Happy would be a big giveaway that something was up. But then again, a team needed to be built on trust. 

“Thanks Pep!” Pepper nodded and bid Piper farewell before hanging up and calling Happy. He was excited to have something to do so he headed back to Stark Tower and picked up the van Tony had gotten when he’d taken Piper in. It hadn’t been used often. He drove to the school and met up with Piper and her friends. He’d only met MJ before. She opened the vans door and gestured them inside. 

“Happy this is Sam, Danny, Ava and you already know MJ.” Happy waved at the teens. It was nice to see Piper making more friends, she continued. 

“Guys this is Happy Hogan. He’s my driver and personal security.” Sam’s eyes bugged. 

“Wait what?! You have a personal driver!?” She ignored him. 

“We wanna go get ice cream please Happy.” Happy nodded.

“Seatbelts please.” They all buckled up and Happy tapped a button on the console. A glass partition folded out of the floor separating the passengers from the driver. Sam turned to Piper who was pointedly looking out the window. 

“Parker, explain.” Ava nodded. 

“Isn’t he supposed to be head of security at Stark Industries?” Danny looked pensive. 

“You’re the rumored adopted child, aren’t you?” Piper looked up at him then back down at her hands. She sighed. MJ grabbed her hand and squeezed. 

“You don’t have to tell them if you don’t want to Piper.” Piper shook her head. 

“They deserve to know, I just wish Luke was here too so I don’t have to go over it again.” Danny nodded at her.

“If it is too painful you do not have to tell us.” Piper shook her head again.

“No. Like I said you deserve to know. My parents were Richard and Mary Parker. When I was three they dropped me off at my Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s house and got on a plane. I never knew why they left, or why I didn’t go with them but their plane went down in the swiss alps. No one made it out of that crash.” She didn’t look up from her hands but it was clear to everyone that there were tears in her eyes when she spoke again. 

“My Aunt May and Uncle Ben took care of me until I was seven. I stayed home sick from school that day. I heard somebody fall in the kitchen and went downstairs to see what was going on. My Aunt May was having a heart attack. My Uncle Ben had called the paramedics but she died in his arms before they ever got there.” MJ was still holding Piper’s hand. 

“When I was eleven I had a stupid fight with my uncle. I honestly don’t remember what we fought about but I ended up running away. He went out looking for me. I made it home around eleven that night all set to apologize but I never got that chance. The police were waiting for me at my house. He’d been shot and killed in a hit and run. I never even got to say goodbye.” Tears dripped onto MJ’s hand and she pulled Piper into a hug. Her friend sobbed into her shoulder for a moment before pulling herself together. 

“I found my parents Will the next day. It listed someone else in case something ever happened to them. To this day I’m not sure why. But he took me in, just as a foster father at first, but when I was thirteen some bad stuff happened to him. But he made it through an officially adopted me after that. So here we are.” Ava whipped her eyes and nodded. Danny nodded as well grasping Piper by the shoulder but Sam didn’t seem to get it entirely. 

“Ok but who dude?” Ava rolled her eyes and swatted Sam upside the head. 

“Think about if for a minute Sam. Happy Hogan, Chief of Security at Stark Industries is also her personal driver and personal security.” It took him a minute before his eyes went wide.

“IRON MAN IS YOUR DAD!” Piper heard a chuckle from beyond the supposedly soundproof divider.


	28. Dreams

Piper kinda wished she hadn’t told them just yet. Sam was still freaking out even as she got them their ice cream. She’d told them it was a secret and that very few people were privy to this knowledge but Sam couldn’t seem to contain himself. It was kind of amusing though.

“So wait, you know the Avengers?” Piper handed him his mint chocolate chip cone, a sardonic look on her face.

“Sam, I live with them. They’re obnoxiously awesome.” He didn’t stop though.

“Can you access the armors?” Piper licked her triple chocolate chunk cone. 

“Some of them. Sam can we maybe talk about this later, in a less public capacity.” Sam was about to speak again when Danny slapped a hand over his mouth. 

“That sounds lovely Piper. Thank you for the ice cream.” MJ laughed. 

“I had the same kind of questions when he took her in.” Piper slung an arm around MJ’s shoulder. 

“MJ has been there for me since the beginning.” There was a honk from the parking lot and Piper looked up to see the sleek black Audi Happy normally drove. He’d dropped them off at an ice cream parlor on sixth avenue. Piper glanced at MJ she nodded and Piper raced over to the car.

“Happy what’s wrong?” He frowned. 

“It’s your dad. He got hurt. They’re back at the tower. Get in the car.” Piper dropped her ice cream and hopped into the back seat and the car sped off. Sam was about to complain about her leaving them behind when MJ switched on the news on her phone. 

‘In Avengers news today, a skirmish with AIM scientists turned sour when Entrepreneur Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, took a shot to the chest during the battle. At our last update, the millionaire is in critical condition in the medical wing of Avengers Tower. All press has been denied access.’ MJ switched off the news cast. Ava swore. 

“I hope he’s gonna be ok.” MJ nodded at Ava.

“Me too. She can’t lose anyone else, I don’t think she’d be able to handle it.” 

Piper ran to the elevator and demanded to be taken to the medical floor. JARVIS obliged. Pepper met her at the door. 

“Come with me sweetie. He’s asleep but he should be fine.” Piper breathed properly for the first time since she’d dropped her ice cream onto the parking lot. Pepper rushed her into one of the recovery suites. Tony was asleep on the bed, he had bandages on his chest and scratches on his face. Steve was sitting next to the bed looking guilty. He looked up and stood as Piper entered the room. He rushed over to her and hugged her. 

“I’m sorry Piper.” She shook her head. 

“Don’t be sorry Uncle Steve, you brought him home. That’s what’s important, not who shot him or if he took the bullet for someone. You got him home. Thank you.” Steve nodded tears in his eyes as Piper took over his chair wrapping her hand in her fathers. Pepper and Steve left the two of them alone. Piper flopped her head down onto the bed next to her father’s hand and cried. It had been a long day, she was emotionally exhausted, and still healing from the fight with Taskmaster. She found herself drifting on the edge of sleep, soon she took the tumble off the edge. 

She was in a house, hiding behind a curtain. Someone was counting, a man she could tell by his voice. It sounded so familiar. He reached ten and spoke again. 

‘Ready or not here I come.’ She giggled as overly loud steps crossed the living room. Soon the curtain was pulled aside and she was swept off her feet giggling the whole way. He was tall, taller than Tony but not quite the same height as Uncle Steve, his hair was wiry and brown but he didn’t have a beard. He had a set of thick rimmed glasses perched on his nose and the same big blue eyes Piper saw in the mirror. She threw her tiny arms around his neck. 

‘Daddy!’ He smiled wide and ruffled her long brown hair. 

‘Found you sweetie.’ He looked like he was gonna say something else when a cry and loud booming noise sounded from upstairs. 

‘Richard! Get up here! Bring Piper with you!’ He ran up the stairs, pausing at one of the always locked end tables. He placed a thumb over the keyhole and it flashed with light for a moment before the drawer opened revealing a stash of guns and a few knifes. He resettled her on his hip and shushed her as she was about to ask a question. He opened the door careful to keep Piper out of the line of sight of the door. He held the gun in his other hand and sighed with relief when all he found on the other side of the door was a woman. 

She was also tall, around five foot seven with the same long brown hair Piper had. Her eyes were brown though and Piper reached out the her.

‘Mom.’ She took Piper from her father and hugged her. Only then did Piper see the disaster that the study had turned into. Piper frowned. Her father spoke.

‘What happened in here?’ Piper shook her head. 

‘Wasn’t me.’ Her mother nodded running a hand through her hair.

‘I know it wasn’t sweetie. Someone was looking for something Richard.’ Her father paled. 

‘Did they find it?’ Her mother shook her head. 

‘I don’t think so.’ She handed Piper back to her father and quickstepped over to one of the walls. Piper frowned as her mother pushed aside one of the pictures on the wall and placed her hand on the panel behind it. The wall shuddered and opened revealing a small, nearly closet sized space off the study Piper had never seen before. There were guns on one of the walls and a small desk with a metal briefcase on top of it. On the briefcase was printed an insignia, a circle with what looked like a bird in it. Piper hadn’t seen it before. 

‘They didn’t get it but they knew to look here. Mary, we need to up our time table. I’ll call the director, set up a rendezvous. And the Brocks, we’ll need their testimony.’ Mary nodded and took Piper from her father’s arms again before stepping out of the room. 

‘Sweetie, I need you to do something for me ok?’ Piper nodded and her mother smiled. 

‘I need you to go pack a backpack ok, some clothes and your blankie. You’re gonna go stay with your Aunt May and Uncle Ben for a bit ok?’ Piper shook her head.

‘Mom, I don’t want you to go.’ Mary hugged her daughter tight. 

‘We’ll be back sweetie, I promise. Now go pack a bag.’ Piper ran off to her room and packed her bag. Soon they were in the car. Piper dozed in the back seat and woke to her father shaking her shoulder. 

‘We’re here sweetie.’ He picked her up and carried her and her backpack inside. Her mother was already inside talking to her Aunt May. 

‘She likes chocolate milk, she won’t drink normal milk. We should be back in a couple of weeks. I’m sorry it’s so short notice.’ Aunt May hugged her mom. 

‘It’s ok Mary.’ Her uncle Ben took her from her father’s arms and she rubbed her eyes. Uncle Ben hugged her father with one arm.

‘I wish you’d tell us where you were going Richard.’ Her father shook his head. 

‘You know I can’t Ben. It’s safer if you don’t know.’ He handed her backpack to her uncle then pulled something out of his pocket and pressed it into her uncle’s hand. 

‘If anything happens to us, show this to Piper when she’s old enough to understand.’ He pressed a small silver USB drive with the same symbol on it as the briefcase into her uncle’s hand then hugged Piper one last time. Her mother rushed over to them and hugged her daughter one last time. She kissed her on the forehead and hugged her again before they rushed out the door and back into the car. Her uncle held her close as she drifted back to sleep in his arms. 

 

Piper woke up to someone running their hand through her hair. Despite the tears streaming steadily down her face she looked up into the tired face of Tony Stark and threw herself into his arms. He laughed and groaned in pain. She pulled back. 

“Sorry.” He shook his head. 

“No need to be sorry, why are you crying Pipes. I’m gonna be ok.” She nodded and whipped at her face. 

“I know, I had a dream, about when mom and dad left.” Tony wrapped his arms around his daughter and let her cry.


	29. A Step Back

Over the next few weeks while Tony was in recovery Piper went though life on auto pilot. She fought with the team against baddies as Spider-girl and tried to be herself but she couldn’t get the dream she’d had out of her head. It had been so vivid so real. Luke sat down next to her during one of the breaks between rounds of Save the Citizen. 

“The other’s told me your story.” Piper nodded not looking up from her sketch she was working on. 

“If you ever need someone to talk to, I got you. I know how it feels to be alone.” Piper looked up and smiled, her mask was sitting beside her.

“Thanks Luke, I appreciate that.” Luke looked over her shoulder. 

“What ya drawing?” Piper glanced down at her paper and frowned. 

“I had a dream a few weeks ago, about the night my parents left, the last time I ever saw them. Not all of it made sense but I’m almost certain that it’s how it actually happened. But it almost couldn’t have been. My mom opened a wall in their study, there were guns in this end table that was always locked. I don’t know.” She showed Luke the drawing she’d been working on. She’d been recreating the room she remembered seeing in the study. The one her mother had opened the wall to get to. She couldn’t seem to get the symbol on the briefcase right though. She’d erased and redrawn it so many times a permanent black smudge on it. He shook his head.

“It doesn’t look familiar, and I’m not all that good with dreams but it sounds important. Have you thought about going back to your old house, see if there’s anything left? Maybe there’s a clue.” Piper frowned she actually hadn’t thought of that. 

“I mean it’s a twelve year old trail but maybe?” Luke patted her on the shoulder. 

“Let me know if you want somebody to come with you.” Piper nodded and thanked him. He stood and entered the training room for his round of Save the Citizen. That night she approached Pepper. 

“Pepper?” The strawberry blonde looked up from her paperwork. 

“What’s wrong Piper?” Piper sighed. 

“I had a weird dream the other night and it made me wonder, you don’t happen to know what happened to the house I lived with my mom and dad in do you?” Pepper looked down at her tablet and finished typing before she set it down. 

“When Tony took you in, I convinced him to purchase everything your Uncle had owned at the Estate Sale. Because he’s Tony he went a little overboard. He bought your aunt and uncle’s house and the one where you lived with your mother and father. They’re in Tony’s name until you’re eighteen. But he never did anything with them. Everything at your mother and father’s house should be where it was when it was abandoned. It never sold, until Tony bought it, and no one ever came to clear it out. Your aunt and uncles things are still in boxes from the estate sale, you know how forgetful Tony can be.” Piper nodded and sniffled slightly before she asked the question burning in her mind.

“Can I go see it?” Pepper nodded. 

“Absolutely. I can have Happy drive you there tomorrow.” Piper hugged Pepper. 

“Thanks Pep. I’m gonna go see dad.” Pepper nodded and Piper walked away to the medical floor of Avengers tower. Pepper sighed and began to make some calls. 

Tony grimaced as one of the doctors he had on retainer changed his bandages. When they finished he laid back on the bed and a soft knock sounded at the door. He called for them to come in and Piper entered carrying a tray full of food. 

“Hey dad! I brought dinner.” Tony smiled. 

“Yay, not hospital food.” Piper set down the tray and stepped aside to talk to the doctor for a moment. When she was done she sat down next to her father.

“So they say you’ll be up and around in the next few days.” Tony nodded his mouth full of mashed potatoes. Piper looked down at her hands for a moment. Then she spoke. 

“Dad, I’m gonna go to the house where my mom and dad used to live.” Tony paused. 

“Makes sense you would want to go eventually. Let me know if you need me to go with you.” Piper shook her head.

“No I think this is something I need to do myself.” Tony nodded. It had taken him time to go through his parent’s things after the car accident, admittedly not twelve years but still every person grieved in their own time. 

“Pepper making all the calls?” Piper nodded. She was still looking at her hands. 

“I was thinking of going tomorrow.” Tomorrow was a school day, but Tony knew this was important to her and really she was too smart for Midtown High anyway.

“I’ll call you out.” Piper smiled slightly and nodded. 

“Thanks dad.” She got up to leave.

“Pipes?” She turned and looked at him. Her eyes were red and puffy and slightly bloodshot.

“No matter what you find, you’ve still got a family here. Sleep good kiddo.” Piper nodded and left the medical wing. She didn’t sleep that night, she went on patrol and beat up a few muggers, helped a lost kid find her mom and went back home but she didn’t sleep. After a few hours tossing and turning in her bed she got up with a sigh and went to her lab. A few hours later JARVIS piped up.

‘Miss Parker, Doctor Banner is requesting entrance to your level shall I allow him access?’

“Yeah J, go ahead and let him up, let him know where I am too.” She didn’t stop tinkering with the SHIELD issued web shooters as the door opened and closed. Bruce sat down in the chair opposite her as she fit the new casing into place on the now smaller web shooter.

“Wasn’t that SHIELD issued?” He asked as she placed the whole thing back on her wrist and flexed it experimentally. 

“Yes, and I don’t care if Fury’s mad, Doctor Conners said I could play with them all I wanted. And it was too big. I may go for the around the wrist design again, holds more web fluid. But some of the features on this are too cool to get rid of.” She shot a line at the ceiling and climbed up it testing the tensile strength of the new formula. Bruce followed her with his eyes as she gripped the line with her bare feet and hung upside down above her table before pulling the shooter off and setting it aside. She turned and looked at him hair hanging around her face. 

“What can I do for you Uncle B?” He sighed. 

“Your dad told me what you’re gonna be up to tomorrow.” Piper sighed reaching out for a smaller device on the table and tinkering with it. 

“And?” 

“I wanted to see if you were ok. You’ve been dealing with a lot over the past few months.” Piper nodded and sighed setting down what appeared to be a gutted version of her old web shooters.

“I wouldn’t say I’m ok. With dad hurt, someone very dead set on finding Spider-girl, and this whole team thing I haven’t had time to breathe much less deal with any of my shit lately. It’s a miracle I can keep up with my school work, let alone spend time with Harry and MJ. I don’t know.” She sighed and crossed her arms. 

“I don’t know. There are days I wonder if I’m cut out for this hero business.” Bruce shook his head at her. 

“I think that to myself all the time. The other guy isn’t exactly hero material after all. But then I look at everything I managed to do here, and around the world thanks to your dad and my place in the Avengers. It’s a tough life, there’s no denying that but sometimes you need to take a step back.” Piper nodded. 

“Yeah, I told Fury I’ll be unavailable tomorrow. He seemed like he was hiding something, but then again, when doesn’t he?” Bruce laughed lightly. He stood.

“I just wanted to make sure you were ok kiddo. You should get some sleep though.” Piper flipped off the web line and hugged him.

“I’ll try Uncle B.” Bruce wandered back off to his own level and Piper sighed sitting back down with her projects. She never did get to sleep that night.


	30. Home Again

Happy pulled the black Audi up in front of a small house in a quiet suburb. Even from here Piper could see the blue front door, she remembered playing on that now empty porch. She took a deep breath. Happy turned in his seat.

“I’m gonna wait out here for you ok?” Piper shook her head.

“No Happy, dad’s gonna need you, Uncle Rhodey’s visiting. You know how they get. I’ll call if I need you. Thanks.” With another deep breath Piper opened the door of the Audi, grabbing her backpack and waving to Happy. She watched him drive away, just to be sure she was really alone, then she turned to the house. The windows were dark, staring down at her, the dead eyes of a past long left behind. She took another deep breath and made her way up the broken and cracked walkway pulling a brand-new key out of her pocket. Pepper had given it to her this morning. That seemed to be the only thing that had changed, the locks. She slipped the key into the lock and turned it opening the door into a dark and tiny front hall. 

Everything was so much smaller than she remembered. Then again it had been twelve years since she’d been back here. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. Pepper hadn’t been lying, nothing had even been moved. Everything was just like she dimly remembered it. She reached over and tried the light switch. To her slight surprise it worked. Pepper must have gotten the power up and working again. 

With the living room light on Piper saw that what had been hulking outlines in the dark was just the furniture still sitting in the room. She allowed herself a small smile at the VHS player that rested beneath the TV set. She still hadn’t taken more than one step into the room. With another deep breath, slightly inhibited by the cloud of dust her first step had stirred up, she began to wander. The downstairs didn’t have much in the way of anything interesting. A living room with twelve-year-old technology sitting unused for so long Piper would be astonished if they still turned on. A kitchen, someone had been through here after her parents’ deaths it seemed for every piece of food had been removed and the refrigerator had been scrubbed clean along with the freezer. Piper thought that was a bit odd but at least the place didn’t smell like mold. A small guest bedroom and bathroom next to the garage. Nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing in the drawers but the usual, spare keys and erasers and the like. Nothing like her dream. Shaking her head and starting to believe it was all her imagination Piper began to head up the creaky stairs. 

This was where things got a bit more emotional. Her old room, the one that she’d lived in until she was three was just off to the left and she paused before gently pushing open the door that miraculously still had plastic glow in the dark stars that spelled out her name sticking to it. The room was painted yellow, it had once been bright, now dulled with age and dust. Some of the stars and planets that had once been stuck to the ceiling had fallen to the floor. None of them glowed anymore as if they had stopped when the family that had once been happy here had crumbled to pieces. There was a small bed in the corner, it was simple white with dusty princess sheets still in their place. A desk held an assortment of books, most of them small but some choose your own adventure novels and toys rested on a small bookshelf. Some clothes still lay scattered on the floor, a mix of small fluffy pink things and the much more well used boys clothes. Her parents had let her pick out her own clothes at two and she had turned out to be a tom boy even back then. Piper let out a soft chuckle as she spotted a small snow leopard still slightly under the blankets. She remembered it, her father had bought it for her after her first visit to the zoo where she’d decided she wanted to be a biologist. Her parents had been so proud of her. She picked up the old dusty toy. It wasn’t much bigger than her hand. She tucked it into her backpack. Tuning she spotted notches in the door frame and grinned. There were only two. The first one was labeled ‘Piper Two Years Old’ the other, ‘Piper Three Years Old’. She continued down the hall. A bathroom lay next to her room.

She paused at the old end table that sat next to the door to the study. The same one from her dream. She tried opening it. It was locked. She sighed. Maybe there would be a key in the study, but she wasn’t quite ready to go in there just yet. So instead she headed into her parents room. There were books on the book shelf and she blew some dust off of the titles. Science journals, a few novels and other titles lay there. One of the books had something sticking out of it. Piper pulled it out, curious. It was a science journal on the theory of cross species genetics written by a Doctor Otto Octavius. The thing sticking out of the book turned out to be a picture from one of those booths you found at carnivals and the like it pictured her mother and father, much younger than she ever remembered them being. She smiled and tucked it back into the journal and tucked it into her bag. It looked like an interesting read. She stepped over to the vanity and blew the dust off of a small picture frame. She smiled tears building in her eyes. It was her father, aunt and uncle gathered around her mother in a hospital bed. There was a small pink bundle in her mother’s arms, the red face of a crying baby glaring at the camera. She opened the back of the frame and slipped the photo into the journal. She turned to step to the other book shelf and felt something crack under her foot. She took a step back and saw that one of the frames from the wall must have fallen off. Carefully she flipped it over. The glass had cracked but it was a picture that confused her. Her mother and father standing in the lobby of what could only be Stark Tower, again much younger than she had ever known them. But what confused her further was a young Tony Stark shaking hands with her father and grinning his signature grin at the camera. She took that photo with her as well. 

Much of the same rested on the next book shelf. The only difference seemed to be a small jewelry box. Piper tried to open it but it too was locked. She turned back to the vanity and opened the drawers, it took some time but eventually she found a small key that fit the box. It opened with a creek and revealed that, like she’d thought it held her mother’s jewelry but what surprised her was that her parents wedding rings were resting in the box too. She pulled them out and slipped them on a gold chain she found in the box before fastening it around her neck. But why hadn’t they been wearing them when they go on the plane. It didn’t make sense. With a sigh, she set the box back down. There wasn’t much else in this room. Just the bed and the closet still full of clothes. It was time to go through the study.


	31. The Study

Like everything else most of the study was covered in dust. But unlike the rest of the house not everything was where she remembered it being. The last vague memory of this room she could muster up was of a room torn apart, papers everywhere and a window sitting open. But as she pushed the door open she saw an immaculate room no papers scattered around. It almost looked too clean. There was less dust here than there had been anywhere else in the house. She sighed in confusion as she leaned on the end table just studying the room from outside for a moment. Her thumb made contact with the lock and there was a small flash of light and a beep then a click and the drawer opened. Piper swore and jumped. That shouldn’t have been possible. She got onto her knees and examined the lock, something was off about it. She managed to hook her thumb nail under the edge of the metal and with a small amount of her enhanced strength popped it off. There was a scanner under it, a finger print scanner. She recognized the design, obsolete for years, but there could be no doubt of what it was. Standing again she opened the drawer. Like everything else there was a slight layer of dust. The knives in the drawer were old and slightly rusted and there was a place for what looked like a side arm that was distinctly empty. Piper stared at the drawer that looked like it had been pulled straight from her dream for a moment stunned. Then she turned to the study.

Stepping inside she ignored the desk and shelves full of books instead she turned to the wall to the left of the window and stared at the photos there. Pictures of her at preschool and her and her parents at the park. The wallpaper was an old and dusty green. None of the photos had fallen off the wall here. She approached the wall cautiously. She gathered a handful of dust and blew it at the wall watching as the still rather early morning light made the dust dance and swirl in the air, until it vanished into the wall. Or more accurately into a crack in the wall so miniscule Piper still couldn’t quite make it out. She closed her eyes trying to remember which picture her mother had pushed aside in her dream. She reached out and turned a photo of her parents wedding. It stayed on its side and under it was an old dusty handprint scanner. Piper paused. What if it wouldn’t work for her? She shook her head. The fingerprint scanner had. It made sense that this would too. She laid her hand on the scanner and light flashed before the wall creaked open. It only made it halfway open before it stopped the mechanism so old it almost didn’t work anymore. Piper shoved the door the rest of the way open. The room from her dream was real. Here it sat before her, stripped of everything but the metal desk. She swore. It was empty, all this work to find a thing she hadn’t even thought was real and it was completely empty. She began tearing through the papers in the study. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just pages of theorems and science projects. Nothing useful, not to her, not right now. No explanations. She swore and went back over the house again with a fine toothed comb. It was nearly two o’clock when she gave up her search flopping into the chair at the desk in the study with tears of frustration building in her eyes. Her phone buzzed. She answered without checking the caller ID.

“Hello?” There was a pause.

“Piper are you ok, you sound upset.” It was Harry. She scrubbed her face and cleared her throat. 

“I’m fine Har. What’s up?” She turned in the chair and spotted a photo on the desk she hadn’t paid attention to before. 

“Well I’ve got this really cool thing to show you. Can you meet me at the penthouse?” Piper grabbed the photo as an idea popped into her head, a forgotten bit of her dream coming crashing back into her head. 

“I can’t right now Harry. I’m… out of town. I’ll call you later ok?” She set down the photo of her aunt and uncle and grabbed her backpack racing for the door. 

“Piper this is really important, is there any way you could get on the jet I know you have access to?” Piper shook her head as she put Harry on speaker and opened her Uber app. 

“Harry, I’m sorry but I can’t.” In the heat of the moment she decided to tell him the truth, or at least some of it. “It’s about my parents.” Harry was silent. 

“Will I see you tomorrow at school?” Piper hopped into the back of a silver Lexus and held her hand over the speaker of her phone as she gave the driver, a middle-aged Lebanese man, the address of her aunt and uncle’s old house. 

“I hope so Harry, I have to go.” He nodded and let her hang up as he stared down at the watch that lay on his desk. He slid it onto his wrist and clicked the button that would normally stop the watch. Instead a black slimy substance covered him, he grinned at the mirror. The suit looked a lot like a black and white version of Spider-girl’s costume. He felt powerful and happy. He turned to his window. And spoke to himself.

“Let’s go do something worth telling Piper.” He leapt out the window swinging away on a black web line.


	32. Shifting

Piper thanked the kind old Lebanese man who drove the Uber promising him a fantastic review for getting her to the address so fast before she grabbed her bag and left the car. He pulled away as she stared at her aunt and uncle’s house. Mrs. Watson, MJ’s mom, was in her garden next door weeding the roses. She looked up and smiled brightly. 

“Piper? Is that you? I haven’t see you around here in years.” Piper swiped at her eyes and nodded forcing a smile. 

“Hi Mrs. Watson. I thought it was time. To go through some of my uncle’s things.” Mrs. Watson glanced down at her watch.

“Aren’t you at school for another hour sweetie?” Piper shook her head.

“Got called out for the day.” She thought for a moment she hadn’t asked Pepper for a key to her aunt and uncle’s house having only planned on ripping open one old wound for the day but here she was. She knew Mrs. Watson was a touch nosey so she leaned on the fence and asked a question.

“Has anyone been by, to change the locks?” Mrs. Watson shook her head.

“No one’s been by in the last four years sweetheart, save the movers for the Estate Sale.” Piper nodded and smiled before walking purposefully up to the front porch.

“Thanks Mrs. Watson.” It took a few minutes of digging in the slightly overgrown roses that were beginning to climb the porch but eventually she found the false rock that hid a slightly rusted old key. With some difficulty she slipped the key into the lock and opened the door, closing it behind her. She sighed looking around. The memories, happy and not so happy, were much fresher here. The last time she’d been here she was by herself too. Until the police knocked on the door from Mrs. Watson’s house and told her that her uncle had been killed. She shook herself out of her old memories and looked around. It was much like she remembered it being, except the furniture was in the wrong places, stacked near walls. In the center of the living room was a large pile of boxes. Everything her aunt and uncle had ever owned stacked taller than she was. Her stomach grumbled. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast and this looked like it was going to be a long job. She set her backpack against the door and pulled out her phone looking up the nearest pizza place. She placed an order for delivery as she circled the large stack of boxes trying to figure out where to start. She thanked the man on the phone and hung up sighing. She easily pulled one of the boxes off the top, of course none of them were labeled. It was going to be tant amount to finding a needle buried in a graveyard looking for one tiny flash drive in everything her aunt and uncle had ever owned. She sighed this was an exercise in pain already. 

Two hours later found Piper sitting on a mattress she’d purloined from the upstairs guest bedroom. It had been sitting against the wall, she’d had to take a few minutes when she found a photo album of much happier times. It was now safely tucked in her backpack, out of sight out of mind, for the moment anyway. Things were scattered around her, her aunt’s old cook book, a box with her uncle’s bowling trophies, papers, old school projects of hers, bit and bobs from a life she hadn’t had the courage to revisit in a long time but she was only halfway through the boxes and still there was no sign of the flash drive. If the drawer of guns and knives was real and the secret room was real there was no way the flash drive had been her imagination. She sighed in frustration setting aside a box of linens. She pulled the next box forwards and popped it open. Her phone buzzed. She ignored it as she shifted through the papers in the box. Nothing interesting, more of the same really. She rolled her eyes and grabbed a piece of now cold pizza out of the box that sat behind her. She set the box aside and pulled the next one out of the pile as she took a bite. 

Piper flopped back on the mattress narrowly missing the now mostly empty box of pizza. She checked her watch. It was nearly seven in the evening. She’d been at this for nearly five hours. She sighed deeply and struggled to her feet. Her legs were stiff for sitting so long. There were only three boxes left. She popped one of them open and sighed. Pots and pans. The next one had more linens. The last one had an ancient computer, well to her standards anyway. She grinned and pulled it out. There was a monitor and a tower for it. A slightly cracked keyboard lay at the bottom of the box next to a wired mouse, a far cry from the tech at Stark Tower, but it was what she was looking for, sort of. If the flash drive was going to be anywhere it should have been there. But it wasn’t. Piper swore and threw the mouse hard. It stuck into the drywall next to the door to the basement. The door creaked open and Piper could have sworn she heard an echo. She stood from the remains of the box and made her way over to the door. She didn’t remember being in the basement a lot as a kid. It had been the laundry room and her uncle’s work room. She carefully made her way down the dusty stairs. There was nothing down here except an old disconnected washer and dryer. Piper sighed and kicked the dryer. It skidded across the floor and hit the wall. There was a thunk and a section of brick fell free sending up a cloud of dust that had Piper hacking and covering her mouth and nose with her shirts collar. When the dust settled she made her way to the now open section of wall. A safe was hidden behind it. Piper stared. She had no memory of this, of either her uncle or her aunt even mentioning it.   
She knelt down. It was the standard sort of safe you could get at any Walmart, except it was old, older even than the four years it had taken Piper to come back into this house. There was a knob on the front, clearly waiting for a code she didn’t know. She looked around and whispered to herself.

“Sorry Uncle Ben.” She punched the safe, the metal crumpling under her strength and ripped the door off of it. She tossed it aside and turned on her phones flash light to be able to see into the dark alcove and interior of the safe. She ignored the texts she had from Ava and Sam. Inside the safe was a small neat pile of bills, emergency money probably and a box. Piper pulled the box out of the safe and popped it open. The first thing that caught her eye was a ring box. She opened it and found her Aunt May’s wedding ring. She carefully added it to the chain with her mother and fathers. She’d have to find her Uncle Ben’s and add it too. There were some important papers in the box but it seemed like the rest of it was empty. Piper swore again and made to throw the now empty box but as she moved it she heard something shift inside it. She frowned and shook the box. There was definitely something moving in it. She took a closer look at the bottom of the box and after some searching found a tiny catch on the inside of the box. She paused. What could possibly need so much protection and secrecy to be locked in a safe hidden behind a false wall and put in under the false bottom of a box. Did she really want to know? She jumped as her phone began to ring. She checked the caller ID this time. She sighed and considered letting it go to voice mail but answered after another couple of rings.

“Sam, I’m in the middle of something.” There was a sigh of relief. 

“Good you’re not dead.” Piper sat up, the box still in her hand. 

“No I’m not dead, I told Fury I wasn’t gonna be available today. Lay off bugging me about training bucket head.” Sam sighed exasperated this time.

“No that’s not it. Have you seen the new in the past few hours?” Piper shook her head as she grabbed the cash out of the safe, it didn’t feel right to just leave it there. She still had the box in her hand as she began to make her way up the stairs.

“No, what did I miss is everyone ok?” Sam spoke to someone else for a minute then his voice became clear again.

“Ava’s texting you the video. You need to see this.” Piper backed out of the call as her phone buzzed again and loaded the video. She watched as a distinctly male figure swooped in saving several people from an apartment fire and then the video cut to him stopping an armored car video. Piper paused the video as he turned to web swing away. The suit was a black and white recreation of her own but the figure wearing it was distinctly male. She stared for a minute.

“Piper are you still there?” Piper’s grip on the box in her hand tightened. 

“Yeah I’m here.” 

“Since when is there a Spider-man?” Piper shook her head.

“I have no idea.”


	33. The Trip

Piper frowned at her computer one ear bud in her ear as she watched the video someone had uploaded to Youtube of the mysterious Spider-Man. The suit bothered her, it was pitch black and reminded her of the symbiote, but that shouldn’t be possible. She’d fried it. The teacher, Miss Quinn, cleared her throat. 

“Are you still with us Miss Parker?” Piper paused the video and looked up. 

“Yes Miss Quinn.” The teacher rolled her eyes. 

“Then would you kindly explain the point of the field trip this afternoon.” Piper sighed. 

“We’re going to Stark Tower to see the arc reactor, and tour the research and development levels.” Piper was not excited for this trip. Her dad had set it up. The school knew whose kid she was, they had to, and they would on occasion milk the crap out of it for educational purposes. Admittedly this was the first time Piper was on one of these field trips but she was not looking forward to it. Miss Quinn nodded and continued in her explanation. Piper put her headphone back in and turned the video back on. Pausing it again as Spider-man began to swing away she zoomed in on his wrist. He didn’t appear to have any kind of web shooter, instead the web seemed to be coming directly from his wrist. Harry leaned over and grinned slightly at the video. 

“Having fun Piper?” Piper rolled her eyes at him. 

“I can’t help being curious Harry. He looks different than Spider-girl.” Harry grinned then frowned. 

“You sure you’re ok Piper? You’ve been off since yesterday.” Piper sighed. Yesterday she’d gone to both of her childhood homes and found that she hadn’t really known much about her parents at all. Sam’s call had interrupted her before she could open the box and she’d headed home from there. The mysterious box that had been hidden in the safe behind a false wall was now hidden under Piper’s bed. She hadn’t had the courage to open it last night. She wasn’t sure what might be on the flash drive she was nearly one hundred percent positive was inside the box for it to need to be hidden so thoroughly. She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know. 

“Just dealing with some things Har I’ll be ok.” Harry squeezed her shoulder and leaned back into his seat. Piper glanced at him, something seemed off. It was almost like his eyes were darker than normal. Piper shook her head, maybe it was just her imagination. Far too soon for her tastes they were loading onto the bus to head to Stark Tower. She snagged the seat next to Sam missing his smirk at Harry who was sitting behind them with Ava. Ava leaned forwards and grinned. 

“I’m so excited, you know we’re the only school he actually lets into the research and development levels?” Piper raised an eyebrow and grinned slightly.

“Yeah Ava, I wonder why that is?” Ava blushed darkly and laughed.

“Oh yeah I forgot.” Piper laughed. Harry glanced at her. 

“You told them?” Piper nodded. 

“Yeah I did.” Harry frowned but said no more instead looking out the window. MJ turned in her seat to glance at them and shook her head. Piper was honestly kinda clueless for the smartest person she knew. The bus pulled up in front of Stark Tower and they disembarked. Pepper was waiting for them in the lobby with one of the receptionists, Trisha.

“Welcome, students of Midtown High. To your left you will find a table with badges on it. Please find your name and pin the badge to the front of your shirt. Your badge must be visible at all times. If your badge is lost, you will be escorted out of the tour, there are no exceptions.” Pepper said her eyes lingering on Piper for a moment as the students milled about the table grabbing their badges. 

“Please stay with the tour group at all times. We’ll head to the elevators in just a moment.” Piper was expecting this to go much much worse than it had so far. She pinned the badge to her shirt and turned freezing as she spotted someone coming out of the elevator. Someone who shouldn’t be out of bed yet. She swore and ducked behind Harry as Tony Stark himself sauntered over to the tour group. He never led tour groups, but Piper had a sinking feeling she knew why he was here. 

“Pepper! Is this the group of bright young high schoolers we’re showing around today?” Pepper nodded barely hiding a smile. Piper glared between them from behind Harry. He and MJ were trying not to snicker and failing miserably, and Pepper was apparently in on this. The whole world seemed against her these days. 

“Great, would you mind making sure Clint and Natasha don’t kill each other for me sweetie.” He pecked Pepper on the cheek and took the tablet from her hands. Piper rolled her eyes but she grinned. It wasn’t so rare these days to see Tony being openly affectionate with his girlfriend/co-CEO but it still made Piper grin every time. She was good for him. Several flashes from phone camera’s went off as Tony smiles brightly. 

“Alright kiddies. Welcome to Stark Tower! Most of you probably know it better as Avengers Tower but it’s still my name on the lease so for today at least we’ll call it Stark Tower.” That got a few laughs and a few more camera flashes. The tour wasn’t half bad in all honesty. At least until they reached the research and development floors. They were about halfway through that section of the tour when the whole building shook violently. Piper just managed to keep her feet as dust rained from the ceiling and the alarm started blaring. JARVIS piped up as the building shook again. 

‘Mister Stark, the tower is coming under attack by a small group of AIM scientists. The other Avengers are already moving.’ Tony swore. 

“Evacuate the building JARVIS. Activate the Armory!” The floor split open around Tony as the Armory, built throughout the tower, reached out and covered him in the armor that had saved so many. Piper began to help Miss Quinn escort the other students to the stairs, there was no way she could slip out, even in this confusion, not with her dad here. She counted heads and frowned they were missing someone. She looked around and realized who it was. The building shook again as Piper called out. Her spidey sense went crazy as she stumbled backward when the building gave another mighty shake. Her eyes met Sam’s as the floor gave out and she screamed as she fell.


	34. That Falling Feeling

Piper would never say it out loud but there was a time she was afraid of heights. When she’d first moved into the family levels of Stark Tower she couldn’t stand on the balcony outside or at the edge of the windows without feeling slightly nauseous. Then she’d been bitten by a radioactive spider and everything in her life had shifted. Now, normally, when she fell she did it on purpose throwing herself off ledges and buildings and racing through the city on a web line. But at the moment her web shooters were at the bottom of her backpack in the secret compartment with the rest of her costume. She closed her eyes as that feeling that she hadn’t felt since she was bitten took over, wind rushing past her face. She wondered if her dad had seen her falling or if he would only realize she was gone when she was being scraped off of the sidewalk. Then something caught her around the waist and another familiar feeling took hold. The feeling of swinging through the air. She opened her eyes and a chest covered in what looked like black intricately webbed spandex filled her vision. On instinct, she wrapped her arms around the figure that had caught her. There was a chuckle. 

“You alright Miss?” That voice sounded so familiar but Piper was too busy being happy that she wasn’t dead to place the voice of her rescuer. 

“How…?” She looked up and saw that there was a black web line connected to the far side of Stark Tower. They were currently hanging about sixteen feet above the sidewalk that was currently embroiled in chaos. The Avengers were fighting a group of AIM scientists that were throwing fireballs from their hands. More Extremis solders, set on avenging Aldrich Killian it looked like the Avengers had this well in hand so Piper looked back up into the face of her rescuer. The mask looked very similar to her own but the eyes blinked and moved like a regular face did only there was no mouth. Maybe it was the gaping white eyes that moved like normal ones or the lack of nose and mouth but it was kinda creepy though that could have something to do with them still just hanging in mid-air on a web line that was, now that she got a closer look, most definitely coming from this guy’s wrist. 

“You didn’t answer my question, are you alright?” Piper nodded slightly dumbstruck. 

“I’m ok. Thanks.” Her spidey sense went crazy and she held on a touch tighter as he pulled them up on the web line narrowly avoiding a ball of fire.

“I need both my hands hold on tight ok?” Piper nodded, there was no way she was even going to slip, thanks to her powers, but he didn’t know that. He was extra careful as he swung them up to the top of Stark Tower. He set her down carefully and the eyes of his mask seemed to smile as he perched on the railing. 

“Stay safe Beautiful.” He brushed her hair out of her face and seemed to smile again before he tipped back and freefell over the side of the building. Piper raced to the edge to try and see where he was going but he was already gone when she peered over the edge. She swore and raced to the entrance and down the stairs, the elevators were locked down. She made it in record time to the lobby where the rest of the students were milling about taking photos of the aftermath of the fight. Sam spotted her first and rushed over to her.

“Piper! Oh my god you’re ok!” The others circled her rapidly asking questions before Pepper, bless her, intervened. 

“Miss there’s a medical crew here to make sure you’re ok, standard procedure. Piper nodded and followed Pepper out of sight of her classmates. As soon as they were out of sight Pepper wrapped Piper in a bone crushing hug. Piper hugged her back and sighed as Pepper ran a hand through her hair.

“You gave us all a heart attack Piper.” Piper glanced down at her feet as Pepper led her over to the medical personal. 

“Everyone?” Pepper smiled slightly.

“Yeah everyone. Steve’s wrangling your dad so he won’t give you away, expect a lot of worried faces at dinner tonight.” Piper grinned. 

“I’m alright I promise.” Piper smiled and hugged Pepper again before letting the resident doctor give her a quick once over. Soon she had joined back up with the group. Tony came back to the group when the fighting was done, this time being supported not so subtly by Captain America in a torn up T-shirt and jeans. He was still holding his shield and many more camera flashes went off from the group as Tony cleared his throat and spoke. 

“Sorry kiddies, looks like our tour has been cut off for the day. Is everyone alright?” His eyes lingered on Piper and she nodded as someone stepped up next to her. He continued on a very rehearsed sounding speech about how being a supervillain bent on revenge was bad, Cap adding things here and there but Piper had heard similar speeches so many times she just tuned them out at this point. Instead she looked up and smiled relieved to see Harry standing next to her. As they began to trickle outside to get back on the bus Piper grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him aside. 

“Where were you? Are you ok? I didn’t see you anywhere when we were evacuating.” Harry chuckled. 

“Piper I’m not the one who fell out a window, I’m pretty sure I should be asking you if you’re ok.” He brushed her hair behind her ear and smiled at her. Miss Quinn called for them to follow the rest of the class and Harry turned to leave before he noticed Piper hadn’t moved.

“You coming, Beautiful?” Piper’s mouth dropped open as her brain, finally coming down off the adrenaline high that came from nearly falling to her death, finally put two and two together. The only thing she could think as Harry took her hand and led her to the bus was ‘What the fuck?!’


	35. Dream

Piper didn’t have the chance to talk to Harry that day. After the debacle at Stark Industries the students had been taken back to school and checked over by the school nurse. Piper got called into the principles office and Coulson questioned her about the Spider-man. She faked ignorance the whole time. Her detention rolled around and she was back in her lab pulling apart the backs of the heads of the last few LMD’s she had to reprogram. She was in costume of course, like she always was while on the Helicarier for which she was glad when Doctor Conners walked into her lab unannounced. She waved to him from where she sat connecting the heads of two of the LMD’s a book open between them. It was the book she’d found at her parent’s house, minus the photo of them of course. She flipped over the mess of wires as the download began and grinned under her mask. Doctor Conners beat her to her book though, scooping it up off the floor and gently flipping it over and reading the title.

“The theory of Cross Species genetics? An interesting read.” He handed it over to her. 

“Though not really a theory anymore, since you exist.” Piper shrugged. 

“I just think it’s interesting. And it’s still technically theoretical, since DNA splicing is still out of technological reach at least for a while. I was an accident. Nobody ever meant for me to happen, not even me.” Doctor Conners smiled. 

“A happy accident at least, I’m sure most of the city agree.” Piper sighed and set down the book. She couldn’t help but notice that Doctor Conners’ eyes followed it. She’d set it down on its front cover and he was looking at the picture of the author on the back cover, a young man with black hair pale skin and glasses. 

“Did you know him?” Doctor Conners nodded and sighed. 

“Doctor Octavius? I did actually. We were roommates at MIT. I wanted to use science to help the world, he did too. We spent so many nights planning ways to make the world better.” Doctor Conners sighed. 

“When we graduated he went off to Oscorp and I never heard from him again. I spent some time at Stark industries. I made some friends there, a wonderful couple, the Parkers. They worked at Stark Industries for a while. But for some reason they went to Oscorp. I never heard from them again either.” He looked up and saw the Spider-girl had frozen. She was standing stock still in the middle of the room her hand reaching for the book. Slowly she looked at him. He couldn’t see her face but something was definitely wrong.

“Spider-girl? Are you alright?” Slowly almost mechanically she moved turning to face him fully. Her voice was strained. 

“The Parkers?” Doctor Conners nodded. 

“Yes, Richard and Mary Parker. Are you alright?” Spidey stuttered as she tried to reply and failed. It had been so long since she’d talked to anyone who knew her parents. Or so she thought. She’d never really asked Tony about them, it had all been too fresh at the time and after that it just never came up. She slowly and carefully stepped over to the door clicking it closed. 

“Did you know them well? The Parkers, I mean.” Doctor Conners nodded. 

“I worked closely with Richard for a few years. Mary was in security, until she went on maternity leave.” Piper was still facing the door. 

“So you know she had a baby. Did you know it was a girl?” Doctor Conners was getting a bit nervous. He’d never seen any of the teens act like this before. But despite this he nodded. 

“I did, I was actually at their baby shower.” Piper grabbed a table and pulled it in front of the door. Doctor Conners frowned. He didn’t think she would do anything to hurt him but this was a bit odd.

“What are you doing?” Spider-girl sighed. 

“I don’t want anyone coming in here who doesn’t already know. I am curious though. How many people are privy to the identities of the teen heroes in Fury’s program?” Doctor Conners raised an eyebrow now more curious than nervous.

“It’s highly classified. Almost no one knows. As far as I know only Director Fury, Agent Coulson and Agent Hill know. I’m not a high enough clearance level.” Piper sighed. 

“Well you’re about to learn one at least.” Still facing away from Doctor Conners Piper reached up and pulled off her mask. Slowly she turned around. 

“Doctor Conners my name is Piper Parker and I have a few questions about my parents.”

Harry was asleep. He had to be, this was too perfect to be real. Piper was curled up next to him sitting on a black couch he’d never seen before. They were watching one of Piper’s favorite science shows. He had his arm wrapped around her. Everything was perfect. A dark voice echoed around him as Piper fell asleep in his arms. 

“It could be like this. All the time.” The couch changed and now Harry was standing looking at Piper still sleeping in a mass of black that was curling around her, tendrils breaking off. A face swirled out of the blackness. Sightless white eyes and sharp pointed teeth smiled at him. 

“You just have to give in to usss. Give in and we’ll give her to you.” Harry started back at the thing. His suit, the living piece of slime he’d found on his piano. The thing that gave him the power to face up against people who could beat Spider-girl and win. It smiled, teeth like needles peeking out from behind a maw as wide as the face that held it. Harry started backwards almost falling but something caught him. He looked up into his father’s face. His father smiled, something he normally only saw around Piper. 

“I’m proud of you son.” The face of the suit was back. Sharp teeth smiling over his father’s shoulder. 

“You could have all this and more. Just sssay yesss. Bond with usss.” Harry jerked backwards. Suddenly he was sitting up in bed. His watch sat innocently on his bedside table. He clicked it open, just to check. The slime was sitting in the watch unmoving until he touched it. Just a dream then. He sighed and curled back up under his blankets before drifting back to sleep.


	36. Time To Talk

To say that Dr. Conners was surprised would be one of the bigger understatements of the year. He stumbled back and sat hard in one of the chairs that sat around one of the lab tables. She looked just like her mother. But she had her father’s eyes. It took him a moment to find his voice. 

“Piper… Parker… How?” Piper sighed and sat down on the floor in front of the door. She explained what little she knew about how her parents had left her behind. She left out the strange room, the still missing briefcase, and the usb drive she wasn’t quite sure who to trust. 

“And then my uncle died. A few years later I got bit by a genetically altered Oscorp spider. Decided I wanted to do some good in the world. But I have some questions.” Dr. Conners nodded. 

“I’m sure you do. I’ll try to answer them as best I can. I worked with your father pretty closely but I didn’t know your mother all that well.” Piper nodded. 

“What was he like? I barely remember him anymore.” Dr. Conners stood and began pacing. 

“He was kind. He always made sure everyone in the lab took care of themselves. Dedicated to helping people, he and I were working on a gene therapy to help regrow severed limbs. We also worked on the Stark Industries Inteli-crops. He said he wanted to make the world a better place for the generations that came after us. He was so excited when he found out your mother was having you. They both were. Mr. Stark too, they were pretty friendly with him.” Piper held her tongue, she’d always known that Tony had to have at least known her parents. She hadn’t known how close they’d apparently been. 

“He was pretty secretive about his past. He never talked about it at all actually. Your mother either. I guess in hindsight all I really knew about them was what we worked together on.” Piper sighed running a hand through her hair. 

“Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of. Apparently no one knew them well.” Piper hung her head staring down at the mask in her hands. She felt a hand on her shoulder. 

“If you ever get the chance talk to Tony Stark about them. He seemed to know them best, before they left for Oscorp. None of us knew why they did that.” Piper smiled at Doctor Conners though it was somewhat strained. She took a deep breath and pulled her mask back on. 

“Thank you Doctor Conners. I appreciate you not lying to me, you might honestly be the first who hasn’t withheld something from me. And I really appreciate that.” Before Doctor Conners could ask what she meant she pulled the table aside and unlocked the door.

“I gotta get home. I have some things to think about.” Doctor Conners nodded as she left. He wasn’t quite sure what she’d meant by that but he could only hope that she wouldn’t decide to do something stupid. 

Piper snuck into her room and snagged the box from under her bed. After a moment of thought she pulled her mask back on and slipped the box into her back pack. She swung off towards a friend. 

Eddie was working on his calculus homework in his tiny apartment when there was a knock on his window. He jumped. It shouldn’t be possible for anyone to be at his window. There was a fire escape but he thought… No he couldn’t have heard anything. He touched his pencil back to the paper and there was another knock. No one could really blame him for being paranoid. He lived in a tiny shithole apartment. He’d been saving for years and he’d finally turned eighteen a few months ago, so the orphanage had kicked him out. He’d gotten a job freelancing as a photographer for newspapers around town, mainly the Bugle but that barely paid the bills. He grabbed his baseball bat and made his way over to the window. He pulled back the curtain fully ready to bash whoever it was in the head. He froze when he spotted who was sitting in his window. 

“Piper!?” Piper grinned as Eddie set down the bat and opened the window. Piper slipped into the room and smiled. She looked a bit rumpled and for some reason Eddie couldn’t even begin to fathom her shirt was on inside out. 

“Hi Eddie, you said I could drop by if I ever needed anything.” Eddie nodded. 

“I did. I kinda thought you’d come in through the door though.” Piper shrugged. 

“Your doorman is intimidating.” Eddie frowned, his doorman did have a big scar on his face but he was actually a very nice man and Piper wasn’t one to judge someone on their appearances.

“Ok but it’s twenty three stories and the..” Piper cut across him. 

“Listen Eddie I need your help.” She explained her dream and her visit to her parents old house and her visit to her aunt and uncles. She rummaged around in her bag until she found the box. The only thing she left out was her conversation with Doctor Conners.

“I haven’t had the courage to open it by myself. And I didn’t know who else to go to. I’m not sure who I can trust right now, but everything else from my dream has been real. So it might have something to do with why your parents were on that plane too. I cant do this on my own Eddie, and if it does have something to do with that you deserve to know too.” Eddie stared down at the box in his best friends hands. It took him a minute but he nodded and took it from her. 

“How do we get it open?” Piper took a deep breath and reached into the box. She flicked a nearly microscopic switch and turned the box over. The false bottom of the box came out and Piper hesitated. Eddie reached for the box carefully and slowly pulled it off the bottom that still rested in Pipers hand. A slim silver usb lay on top of the false bottom in Pipers hand. She let out a shaky breath and picked up the usb before carefully flipping it over. Her eyes went wide and the false bottom of the box fell from her hand. Eddie stared at the usb just as shocked as Piper.

“Piper, I don’t think your parents were scientists.” Piper couldn’t even nod all she could do was stare at the symbol on the usb. The symbol that had only become widely known since a wormhole had opened above her home and spat out hundreds of invading aliens. The SHIELD logo stared up at her, dusty and old but still plain as day.


	37. Files

Piper choked out a breath as she stared at the usb drive in her hand. Eddie was shaking slightly and he could only watch as tears spilled down Pipers face. 

“You didn’t know?” Piper shook her head. 

“I had no idea.” Piper stared down at the usb in her hands. It took a moment of silence before she was able to speak again. 

“Can I borrow your computer?” Eddie nodded and grabbed his backpack. He pulled out his backpack and knocked his homework aside. 

“Your computer is probably faster and all around better than mine.” Piper nodded and handed Eddie the usb.

“Yes, but it’s also connected to the Stark Industries mainframe. And I’m not sure who I can trust right now. And we can do a hardware and software update to your computer later if you want. As a thank you for helping me.” Eddie shook his head. 

“No need to thank me, though I won’t turn down the update if you want to.” Piper let out a slight laugh as Eddie booted up his computer and plugged in the usb. It took a moment to boot up and then the screen of Eddie’s computer went black and a box popped up in the center of the screen. It simply read ‘Password:’

“Do you have a password?” Piper frowned. 

“No, I don’t…” The computer beeped.

‘Voice Print Recognized. Subject Identified. Welcome Piper Parker.’ The screen lit back up this time displaying a white screen with a barely visible outline of the SHEILD logo behind the two files there. One of them was labeled testimony and the other was labeled Piper. Eddie backed off the keyboard and let Piper sit down in front of the computer. She sat down hard her lip trembling, she swiped at her eyes and clicked on the file that was under her name. There was what appeared to be a digital copy of their will in the file and a video file. Eddie cleared his throat. 

“I should…” He made to move for the door but Piper grabbed his arm. 

“Stay. Please.” Eddie nodded and sat down next to her. She nodded and took another shaky breath. She clicked on the video and tensed as an image of her father and mother popped up on the screen. It took a second for her to muster up the courage to press play. 

‘Piper, if you’re watching this then the worst has happened and your mother and I are gone. There’s so much we should have told you. So much I hoped I’d never have to share.’ He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Her mother put a hand on his shoulder and smiled at the camera. 

‘You should know we never wanted to leave you. We did what we did to protect you.’ Her father nodded. 

‘Watching this means you’re old enough to understand that we aren’t regular scientists. Your mother is a field agent for an organization called SHIELD, the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division, and I worked in the science department for the same organization. It’s how we met.’ Richard took his wife’s hand and smiled at her. Piper smiled slightly. Her mother spoke next.

‘After we got married we decided we wanted to get out of the life. So we retired, your father still wanted to help people so we decided he should stay in the sciences. So we went to an old friend of ours, Tony Stark. It was great for a few years but about a year ago the director of SHIELD approached us with one last mission. Something to help make the world a better place for the people who come after us. For you Piper.’ The video cut and suddenly it was just her father at the computer. He looked mussed up and frazzled. 

‘I’m sorry Piper I wish we had more time to record this but we’ve been found out. Someone at Oscorp knows we’re investigating them. We haven’t been able to find out who exactly knows or how much they know, but we know that we need to move quickly. If all goes well you’ll never have to see this video but if you are watching this then we didn’t make it. I’m including all the video evidence we have on this flash drive. You need to make sure it ends up in the right hands, I hope with all my heart you never have to watch this video Piper. But know that your mother and I love you and we left, we did what we did to protect you. We love you Pipes. I wish there was another way. I wish we hadn’t gone back to SHIELD, but we did…’ He sighed and took a deep breath. 

‘Please remember that we love you and we want you to be happy no matter what happens to us.’ The video went black and Piper stared at her face in the now black computer screen. There were tears on her face she didn’t remember being there before. She shook as she swiped at her eyes. A sob bubbled up in her chest and she tried to hold it in but it burst out along with a fresh wave of tears. Eddie pulled her into a hug, she sobbed into his shoulder as her phone began to ring. 

Luke shook his head setting down his phone. Sam frowned, and went to pull out his phone but Ava shook her head. 

“We don’t have time to call her anymore, we need to take down the Dragon-man robot now before it hurts anyone.” Danny nodded placing a hand on Sam’s shoulder. 

“I am sure she has a good reason for not answering. The Spider usually has a reason for the things she does.” Nova nodded and they began to step forwards when someone pointed to the roof across from them. 

“It looks like we were worried for nothing.” Ava said as she watched the figure swing in. Then they all gasped as the figure fired a ball of webbing at the Dragon-man robot. It went right through the robot taking the core with it. The figure then leapt from the building and kicked the powering down robot and landed on top finally coming into the light of the street lamp. The whole team froze, they hadn’t actually seen him before and his Youtube videos had all been blurry. All of them were stunned by the figure they saw, the symbol on his chest was all too familiar. It was the same symbol they had seen on the thing that had taken over one of their friends. It could only be Venom. 

“Ok now we try calling her again!” Sam said pulling out is phone.


	38. On The Rooftop

Piper turned her phone off as she walked through downtown. She just needed to think for a while, without the near constant buzzing of her phone in her pocket. The team could yell at her for missing training again later. Eddie had offered her his slightly broken couch for the night but she had needed some air after the revelation of the day. Her whole world had just been turned on its ear. Everything she’d ever thought she knew about her parents was a lie. It was likely that her Uncle Ben had known her parents worked for SHIELD from the beginning, her father had given him the usb after all. And he’d hidden it well. Fury definitely knew. Tony, the man she considered her father, probably knew. Yet no one in the past twelve years since her parents’ deaths had though she maybe deserved to know the truth. Not Fury who she technically worked for, and not Tony who had become family to her. She shook her head. Sighing she took a left into an alley she nearly always swung through as Spider-girl. She was so distracted she didn’t notice the figure behind her until she heard the flick of a switch blade being opened. 

She knew better than to freeze, she really did. She’d lived in New York her whole life with only occasional trips to Malibu. She knew how to react to a mugging, hell she stopped muggings on the regular, but only as Spider-girl. Never as Piper. She knew better she really did but still her muscles decided it was a good idea to freeze solid at that moment and she stumbled. The man behind her took his chance and grabbed her wrist slamming her into the wall. She managed a short scream before he got his hand over her mouth. He smelled like beer and cigarette smoke. His breath wreaked like spoiled milk. His hand began to slide down her arm and she struggled. She could have thrown him across the alley with ease and was a mere second away from doing so when something came crashing out of the shadows and tackled the man knocking him away from Piper and into the dumpster a few feet away. Any sensible person would have run, but no one who knew Piper well would ever accuse her of being sensible. 

Instead of running she took a step forwards, towards the shadowy figure now beating on the mugger. There was a pained groan from the man and Piper jumped slightly still shaken up. Her foot connected with a can behind her and sent it spinning into the wall. The shadowy figure leapt up the wall sticking there in a very familiar way and began to crawl up the wall at top speeds. Piper called after him after glancing over at the mugger to make sure he wasn’t getting back up any time soon.

“Wait!” There was silence for a moment. Piper thought her rescuer might have left her alone in that alley but then there was a sound familiar to only herself and the few people who’d worked with Spider-girl, the sound of a web line being shot. Her rescuer lowered himself down to her level and Piper got a decent look at him in the dim light of the alley. The costume was the same as before and the eyes still kind of gave her the hebie jeebies but knowing who was under that mask helped ease that a touch. She could hear his smile in his voice as he spoke.

“I see trouble knows how to find you Miss.” Piper rolled her eyes glancing over at the mugger to make sure he was out before she spoke. 

“Miss? Harry you aren’t slick, I know it’s you.” The Spider-man dropped down on his web line slightly but chuckled. 

“You are way too smart for your own good Piper.” Piper’s already small smile dropped a notch. Harry tilted his head slightly before flipping off the line to stand directly in front of her. 

“You look down.” Piper ran a hand through her hair and sighed. 

“Yeah that’s one way of putting it.” Harry reached out a hand.

“I know just the thing. Do you trust me?” Piper giggled slightly, Harry was very secretive about it but he was a closet Disnerd. 

“Of course I trust you Harry.” She said as she reached out and took his hand. Moving faster than a regular human was capable of Harry pulled Piper close and slipped a hand around her waist so they stood close facing each other. 

“Good. Hold on tight.” Piper was about to ask him what he meant when his arm around her tightened and he shot a web line at the top of a nearby building. Piper threw her arms around his neck as he pulled them up out of the alley. They swung across the city and Piper couldn’t help the belt of laughter that escaped. No matter what there was nothing like a good web swing to clear the head. They were across downtown in a matter of minutes and with a mighty tug Harry pulled them up to the top of Stark Tower. He gently set her down and brushed her hair behind her ear again, much like he had the first time he’d set her up here. Piper laughed and took his hand. 

“Thank you Harry. That was fun.” Spider-man glanced around and the mask peeled itself back. Piper stared. She still wasn’t sure what the suit was but the way it moved and the symbol on his chest was eerily familiar. Harry smiled and tilted her chin up gently. 

“There’s the smile I love. He didn’t hurt you did he? The man in the alley?” Piper shook her head.

“No you got there in the nick of time.” Harry’s smile looked different somehow, darker.

“Good. I’ll always be there for my favorite Damsel in Distress.” Piper scoffed. 

“I’m no damsel in destress Harry. But thank you.” Harry grinned a bit wider. 

“You’re welcome.” He leaned in and pecked Piper on the cheek. Then without warning he dove backwards off the roof his mask sliding back into place on its own. Piper stared after him her hand absently touching the spot on her cheek that he’d kissed. 

“Oh I’m in trouble.” She sighed and headed for the roof entrance door. She had some research to do on symbiosis. 

‘Mister Stark, Miss Parker has arrived home.’ Tony glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost midnight. 

“Thanks JARVIS, redirect the elevator to this lab please.” Tony said before turning back to his latest project. It took the elevator a few minutes to ding signaling its arrival. The doors opened and Piper stuck her head out of them. She stepped into the room. It wasn’t often Tony called her down to this particular lab. It was his main armory at Stark Tower and normally he only called her here to show her something or tell her she was in trouble. 

“Hi. Everything ok?” Tony nodded. He glanced up at her and frowned. She looked like she’d been crying.

“I’m fine, looks like I should be asking you that question. Did something happen?” Piper shook her head.

“I don’t wanna talk about it right now.” Tony shrugged. 

“Ok well the reason I called you down here was because I have something for you.” Tony turned to his work table and picked up two red bands. He motioned for Piper to hold out her hands. She did so, knowing that her web shooters were at the bottom of her back pack and wouldn’t get in the way of whatever this was. Tony slipped the bands onto her wrists. On closer inspection Piper saw that they were in fact red and gold, the same shades as the Iron Man armor. They were about an inch and a half wide. There was a small gem like circle on each band. Piper raised an eyebrow at Tony.

“They’re for your protection. Push the button.” Piper pushed the button on the left hand and the metal sprang to life and unfolded around her hand. The familiar sound of a repulsor blast charging up filled Piper’s ears. The other glove came to life on its own seconds after the first, forming another glove. 

“Cool. But why?” Tony flicked a switch on the side of the gloved and they folded back into the bands. 

“Like I said, for your protection. Too much has been happening at your school lately and since you won’t let me transfer you or even homeschool you I’m doing my bit to keep you safe.” He handed her two more metal bands. These were bigger and shaped like a shoe. 

“Slip those onto the soles of your shoe, I wanna see if they’re too heavy. I gutted almost everything and you’ll only have five minutes of flight time before they die out but they should get you away from any danger faster than running would. Please don’t argue with me about this, this is for my own sanity if nothing else.” Piper nodded slightly and slipped the bands onto her shoes. They added a bit of weight but nothing she couldn’t handle. She thanked him and made her excuses, heading off to bed. Tony frowned after her.

“JARVIS, did she seem off to you?” Tony asked eyes still locked on the elevator.

‘I believe she is upset Mister Stark.’ Tony nodded and glanced at his work bench. He sighed and walked over to the elevator.

“Take me to the kitchen. I need two grilled cheeses and two cups of tea.” JARVIS called the elevator down once Piper was off it and started up the chief bot. Tony might be a decent father but he was no cook.


	39. Trust

Piper frowned as her fingers flew across her keyboard. The kind of symbiosis that came Venom wasn’t the same as any kind of symbiosis that existed in nature. Most symbiotic relationships in nature were beneficial to both parties, but with Venom it seemed that the relationship was entirely beneficial only to the symbiote. Piper sighed as she skimmed through yet another article about a symbiotic relationship between fish. There was a knock at her door. She called for whoever it was to come in and was a bit surprised when a plate of grilled cheese sandwiches and a large bowl of tomato soup was set down beside her computer. She looked up and a small smile worked its way onto her face. Tony smiled and pulled up Piper’s second desk chair. One of the Dummi bots had been following Tony and set down a mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Piper’s smile turned a bit more genuine. Tony took a sip of hot chocolate from his own mug. 

“You seem a bit down Pipes. I know being a teenager is hard, believe me I know. I was a terror as a teen. But maybe that was because I didn’t feel like I had anyone to talk to. I just want you to know I’m here for you no matter what.” Piper picked up a square of sandwich and dunked it in the soup before taking a bite and chewing slowly. Tony waited for her to speak. She swallowed her bite of sandwich and stood. She stepped over to her bed and pulled a book out from under it. It was an old photo album. She sat back down in her chair and flipped the album open to the very back. There were a few loose photos tucked into the back of it. She searched through them for a moment before stopping on one photo. Without looking up she spoke. 

“We never talk about my parents.” Tony frowned. She was right, they had never really talked about her parents. He had never brought it up because he knew how painful it could be when someone ripped open old wounds. 

“You never asked, I didn’t want to open old wounds for you.” Piper nodded and pulled the photo she was looking at out of the album handing it over to Tony. It was an old photo of him and Pipers parents, in it he was shaking hands with her father. He smiled lightly at the photo. 

“You knew them well?” Tony nodded. 

“Yes I did.” Piper looked up tears in her eyes. 

“Did you know they were SHIELD agents?” Tony was a bit surprised but he nodded. 

“I did. They saved my life when I first took over Stark Industries. Someone tried to assassinate me, I was never sure who was behind it. They didn’t say who they worked for back then, it didn’t really matter to me. I told them if they ever needed anything to come to me. A few years later they did. They wanted out of the agency they were working for, they wanted to settle down and raise a family. Your father was a brilliant electrical engineer, and your mother was only slightly less badass than Natasha. I gave them both jobs. Your mother was my head of security for a while, your father helped design the Inteli-crops. They had you about three years after they came to Stark industries.” Tony ran a hand through his hair and sighed. 

“Not too long after you turned two they got an offer from someone for a new job. They took it. I never knew why. They turned up working at Oscorp not too long after. I don’t know if Oscorp made them a better offer or if SHIELD got them back into the agency somehow, but less than a year later the plane they were on went down. I didn’t hear anything else about them until you showed up on my doorstep with the social workers.” Piper frowned. 

“The social workers knew about my parents?” Tony sighed. 

“One of the women who brought you to the Malibu house wasn’t actually a social worker. Her name is Maria Hill, she’s an agent of SHIELD and she was there to make sure I took you in that day.” Piper’s frown deepened.

“What… Why?” Tony shook his head. 

“SHEILD had been shadowing you for a while, trying to make sure nothing bad happened to you.” Piper scoffed, Tony nodded. 

“I never said they did a good job of it. When they found out your Uncle died they sent Maria to take you in, your parents were brilliant agents. According to Maria, Fury thought you could be too and since you didn’t have any family or anyone else to take you in no one would really notice, in theory. Then you found your parents will, which listed me because your father made me your godfather when you were born. Maria knew it was possible that I wouldn’t take you in. I wasn’t in a good place back then we both know that.” Piper nodded.

“She pulled me aside and explained what would happen if I didn’t take you in. If I didn’t, Fury would. And because he’s Fury he would have sent you off to some military SHIELD academy at the ripe old age of eleven. He would have completely robbed you of your childhood and molded you into what he wanted you to be, not what you wanted to be. I couldn’t let you go through that. I had been there, my father shipped me off to boarding school the first chance he got. So I took you in. I honestly didn’t expect to care about you, but I swear you have a superpower kid. You can make anyone care about you, they just have to get to know you first.” Tony reached over and rubbed Piper’s shoulder. Piper looked up at him from the album in her hands. 

What she’s heard from Tony meshed with what Doctor Conners had told her and with the timeline she knew to be true. She tried to hold back a sob but it ripped itself from her throat before she could stop it. Tony opened his arms and Piper dove into the hug and sobbed. 

Sam was… well he didn’t want to say concerned. But yeah that was pretty much the right word. Sam was concerned about Piper, about everything that had been going on with her. She’d been shutting the team out bit by bit for the past week or so. Then she almost died falling out the window of Stark Tower. She had been saved by the Spider-man, but she refused to talk about it. He’d also caught her sketching a weird briefcase in Science class instead of paying attention like she normally did. She was acting weird was all he was saying, not that he really cared… Ok maybe he did, but he’d never tell her that. And maybe he was a bit jealous of her and Eddie talking with their heads together in the corner of the library. Ava glanced at Sam then at what he was looking at.

“Ah, so that’s why you’ve been so distracted these past few days.” Sam blushed slightly and shook his head at Ava. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Ava smirked slightly. 

“Sure you don’t Sam.” She shook her head pulling another book off her shelf. Sam’s eyes wandered over to the pair in the corner. Piper was tapping away on Eddie’s computer, frowning. She swore and slammed a hand down into the desk. Sam couldn’t hear what she was saying but she looked very frustrated. Sam glanced at Ava who was no longer paying attention to him. He snuck off to the shelves behind where Piper and Eddie were sitting. Finally, he could hear what they were saying. 

“…not sure how long this is gonna take. This encryption is the most difficult I’ve ever had to deal with, and it’s not even the most advanced encryption software out there, might have been at the time but still. Without JARVIS I’m not that great at this. I need to practice.” Eddie shook his head. 

“I mean you really don’t need to. I don’t know anyone who could decode any of this, except you.” Piper shook her head. 

“You clearly haven’t seen my dad try and hack anything.” Piper paused. “I’m thinking about telling him what we found.” Eddie looked a bit confused.

“About the usb?” Piper nodded. 

“Yeah. If the evidence on here can prove that our parents were murdered we need to get it out there.” Sam dropped his small stack of books. Piper whirled in her seat. She spotted Sam just as he ducked behind the shelves. Sam heard Eddie stand but something stopped him. 

“It’s probably just someone being a klutz. Don’t worry about it.” Sam heard Eddie sit back down. The bell rang and Sam heard the laptop they’d been working on click closed. 

“You go on ahead Eddie, I need to grab a few books.” Sam began to gather his books and turned to grab the last one only to find Piper holding it out to him. 

“If you’re gonna snoop on someone don’t do it to someone trained by the Black Widow.” Piper handed him is book and helped him to his feet. 

“We have class but I’ll explain what’s going on soon I promise. I’m sorry I’ve been such a flake lately, everything has just been happening so fast I haven’t had time to do everything I need to do. The team got put on the back burner and I’m sorry for that. I’ll try to do better soon.” Sam nodded and cleared his throat.

“You found evidence that points to your parent’s murder?” Piper nodded. 

“Then that comes first. I understand, the others will too.” Piper nodded. 

“Just don’t tell anyone besides the team, please Sam. I’m not sure who I can trust right now.” Sam nodded and held out a fist to Piper. 

“We’ve got your back Piper.” Piper fist bumped him and smiled slightly.


	40. Said The Spider To The Spider

Piper was having a hell of a week. That was the only way she could think to describe it. She was back at Eddie’s apartment upgrading his computer with some of the spare parts and the soldering kit from her home lab. Something about this whole situation left a bad taste in her mouth. She had talked to Eddie about it a bit more and they had agreed that it was a good idea to let her dad in on the whole situation. She was planning on telling him tonight. Eddie was out of the apartment, he’d given her a spare key. She set down her tool and sighed. There were a few other people she wanted to bring in on the secret but she wasn’t sure she should. The team was SHEILD. They lived on SHEILD property, they trained at SHEILD, they followed SHEILD orders. SHEILD had let someone get away with murder. The plane her parents had been on hadn’t even been a private one. It had been a regular Boing 747, it hadn’t been a full flight. But there had been nearly two hundred people on that plane. No one had made it out alive, but they hadn’t found all the bodies. In the twelve years since a few bones had surfaced but they were too damaged to identify. Piper glanced over at her laptop. It was open to a list of people still missing presumed dead from the crash. There were thirteen names on that list but one stood out to her. Dr. Otto Octavius. It seemed too big a coincidence that he’d been on that plane too, with everything she’d learned from Doctor Conners and everyone else she’d talked to about his mysterious change in personality after joining Oscorp. 

And there was the second thorn in Pipers brain. Oscorp. Norman Osborn’s company. Harry’s dad’s company. Something in it had been rotten enough twelve years ago to send two undercover SHEILD agents in. And they’d found something. That might be what bothered her most was that they’d clearly found something bad enough to kill over. Bad enough to kill almost two hundred people over. And whatever they had found was sitting, encrypted, in a usb in Queens. A usb only she could access, but that she couldn’t decrypt. She rolled her head around her neck trying to work out a kink in her shoulder. She coughed, rubbing at her eyes. Unfortunately, spider healing didn’t do much against the common cold, even when it was most likely induced by stress. Piper’s phone alarm went off and she popped the cover back on Eddie’s computer. She stifled a sneeze in her elbow as she switched off her computer and slid it into her bag along with the usb. She left the apartment and locked up. She really didn’t think she would make it by web slinging to school so she caught a cab.

Sam really couldn’t hide it anymore, he was seriously worried. It had been a few days since he’d talked to Piper, she hadn’t shown up to any of the training she was supposed to, Fury was pissed. She’d avoided Coulson and she hadn’t told him anything about what was going on but every time Coulson walked into a room she had to be in she got this look in her eyes. Distrust and anger turning her blue eyes steely. He couldn’t figure out what was going on, but he was going to, no matter what. 

Piper leaned her head against her locker. The cool metal felt great on her head. She really should have taken Pepper’s advice and just stayed home. She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose loudly. 

“Ouch, that doesn’t sound good.” Piper jumped. It wasn’t often someone could sneak up on her. Clint and Natasha were two of the only people who could manage it. She turned and looked into Harry’s eyes, but they didn’t quite look like Harry’s. They were darker, swirling with black. Now that she looked she could see the effects of the symbiote. She forced a smile, then let loose a loud deep cough into her sleeve which Harry seemed to pass off as the reason for her smile being so fake. 

“No, it’s nothing, just a cold.” Piper sniffled whipping her nose on the tissue still in her hand. Harry reached out and Piper tried not to flinch back but she didn’t quite manage it. She grinned slightly surpassing another cough. 

“Wouldn’t want to spread the cold.” He smiled. Was it just her or did it look a bit sinister? 

“You’re so sweet Piper.” There was a breathless pause before his smile grew wider and a touch more genuine. He grabbed her hand in his and leaned closer. 

“I want to show you something.” Before Piper could protest Harry was dragging her off to a nearby janitor’s closet. Mary Jane grinned as she spotted her best friends slipping into the closet. She rolled her eyes.

“About time.” She muttered under her breath.

Piper’s face was bright red, and it was only partially because of the fever. A janitor’s closet was not the coziest of places. She already knew that, having used the school’s janitors closet to change into her costume. She’d never been in a janitor’s closet with someone else though. She laughed nervously as Harry grinned. 

“I know you already figured out that I’m Spider-man but I want to show you how I did it.” He let go of her hand and brought his wrist up to eye level. It looked like one of Harry’s regular watches, digital and expensive. Piper raised an eyebrow at him. He grinned and tapped the button on the side of the watch. The top of the watch folded back and the symbiote stretched out covering Harry from head to toe, morphing him into the Spider-man within seconds. Piper jumped back as much as was possible in the tiny enclosed space. The mask grinned at her before peeling back to reveal Harry’s face. 

“Isn’t it cool?” Harry was grinning but Piper’s heart was going a mile a minute, memories of watching helpless trapped in her own head as the thing her friend was now wearing as casually as he normally wore Armani rampaged hurting her team, her friends. Harry must have noticed Piper’s distress because he frowned. 

“Piper are you ok?” Piper shook her head. 

“Harry where did you get that thing?” Harry’s frown deepened.

“Why does it matter? Think about how proud my dad is gonna be when he finds out I’m a hero.” Piper was watching the suit closely. 

“Harry, this is important, where did you get that thing?” Harry sighed. 

“I found it, at my house after the party.” Piper’s heart sank. That was exactly what she hadn’t wanted to hear.

“Harry, doesn’t that mean that that’s the thing that attacked your party. The thing that threw me through a window. The thing that Spider-girl had to show up and stop. The thing that almost killed her.” Harry scoffed but something was going on with his eyes again, they were getting a touch clearer and more confused by the second. 

“Spider-girl is obsolete. Finished. We’ll beat her soon and then we’ll be the only spider in town.” Piper was feeling worse about this situation by the minute. 

“Harry, who’s we?” Harry froze his eyes clearing to their usual sky blue for the first time in weeks. He looked down and his eyes went wide and panicked. The symbiote rippled and Piper tried to go for the door but Harry was standing between her and it. Or at least the thing that had been Harry was. It clearly wasn’t him anymore. She heard a faint scream from inside the tar like substance and then it closed over him again but this time something was different. The symbiote rippled again and grew, larger more muscular, filling the room as the bell in the hallway outside rang for the start of third period. A snarl rang through the room as a great black maw full of pointed fangs ripped itself open and a tongue longer than her torso ran over the ruined lips of the symbiote, Venom’s lips. Piper was trapped. Venom smiled. 

“We are Venom.”


	41. Lost Secret

Harry tried to scream but no sound came out. He watched as Piper backed across the room as much as she could away from him, away from Venom. How had everything gone so wrong so quickly? Why hadn’t he realized that the thing he’d found in his house had been the same thing that had attacked Piper at his party? The answer came slithering into his ear in the same hissing slithering voice that had echoed in his dreams for weeks. 

“Becaussse I didn’t want you to realizze it.” It was the voice of the symbiote, Venom’s voice. 

“I needed a hossst, you were jussst what I needed. Now I can kill the Ssspider, the one who betrayed me. Ssshe refusssed to bond with ussss.” Harry watched as Venom made to lunge at Piper but she slapped her wrist and suddenly there was a glove around her hand, a metal glove. A blast of light sent Venom flying into the door of the janitor’s closet which groaned but miraculously remained standing. Venom roared as Piper aimed both gloved hands at the ceiling above him. 

Sam, Danny, Ava and Luke froze as a roar shook the school’s foundation. Chaos erupted in the classroom as the four of them ducked out the door. 

“Where’s Webs?” Sam called out over the din that had taken over the school building. The building shook again and this time there was the distinct sound of lasers. Then the crash of the roof caving in a nearby room. The team rushed outside just in time to see something distinctly female blasting out of a hole in the school roof. Her Black Widow hoodie was zipped up and the hood pulled up and miraculously staying in place despite the wind blowing around her as she took off on her rocket boots through the Queens skyline. Something large and black and very frighteningly familiar pulled itself out of the hole and roared, swinging after her. Sam looked around at the others before nodding to himself and grabbing Danny and Ava by the arm. He dragged them through the crowd to an alley behind the school. Luke followed them. Ava frowned as Sam flipped up one of many hidden panels SHIELD had installed around the school to help them get to their equipment should they need to. 

“What are you doing?” Sam glanced around before speaking as he typed in his access code. 

“We’re going after her.” 

Piper hadn’t had much choice but to use the gift Tony had given her a few days ago to get out of there. She really hoped no one had seen her face. She’d pulled up her hood at the last minute before she’d activated the boots and taken off out of the hole she’d blasted in the roof. She had no bout she’d be getting an earful about that later, if she lived. She had a very irate symbiote chasing her across Manhattan after all. And only three minutes left on her boots, if her dad had been right about the time he’d given her. But she needed to keep Venom’s focus, otherwise that thing could and she had no bout would, run rampant on the people of New York. The people currently snapping photos from below her before realizing that there was something dangerous chasing her. She had never been more grateful for her ability to selectively stick to things. That meant that despite the wind shrieking in her ears her hood wasn’t going anywhere. She was also glad that she liked hoodies a few sizes too big for her. The shadow cast by the hood would, hopefully make identifying the hoodlum with Tony Stark’s tech nearly impossible. 

Piper whirled as her Spidey sense went crazy. She fired a blast from her glove and struck Venom directly in the face spinning midair to avoid a web line and kicking her heels together to put on an extra burst of speed. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and slipped the earpiece out of the case and into her ear. 

“Jarvis!” The British AI responded immediately.

‘Yes Miss Parker.’ 

“Open the window, west side twenty fifth floor hallway. Now please! And evacuate the building, except the Avengers.” Alarms began to blare as Piper dove in through the still opening window knowing Venom wasn’t far behind. 

‘Miss Parker, I am afraid the Avengers are away on a mission. They are not expected back for several days.’ Piper swore loudly and dove into the lab just off the hall. She slammed into a computer hard but managed to somehow keep from destroying it as she furiously overrode the quarantine system and set it around the three levels of labs that were now empty thanks to the quite expedient nature of the evacuation protocols Tony had put in place ever since super villain attacks had become a regular occurrence. She slammed her hand into the execute button just as Venom came crashing into the lab. Piper leapt over the console and blasted a hole in the vent near the floor before baseball sliding into it narrowly missing Venom’s talons. She heard Venom shriek in rage as she raced through the vents. She knew exactly where she was going and with no one left in the building she was free to use her super strength with impunity. She wasn’t sure if Harry would remember any of this but she couldn’t let him find out that she was Spider-girl. The good thing about this situation, really the only good thing about it if she thought about it, which she was trying not to, was that Harry already knew that Tony was her father. But these were things she needed to worry about later, after she made sure he would survive this ordeal. She kicked in a vent and dropped to the floor of the room below switching off and tossing aside the gloves and boots Tony had given her. 

This was one of the Labs almost no one had access to, if only because it wasn’t technically a lab anymore. It was technically an equipment room. It housed all the extra equipment the Avengers normally didn’t need or were still perfecting. Piper had to think fast, Venom could be here any second. She’d managed to kill the thing once but she wasn’t sure if it would work a second time without hurting Harry. She didn’t really have much of a choice though if she wanted to survive. She snatched up Natasha’s spare Widows Bites, the electrics she kept around her wrist and used to stun opponents. Piper fixed them around her wrists and frowned slightly. The problem with those was she would have to get close to use them. She snatched up Clint’s spare quiver and checked the arrows. There were three incendiary, one regular tipped, one boxing glove arrow and blessedly four shock arrows. She snagged his spare bow and slung the quiver across her back just as the ceiling began to rattle. She just managed to get the last piece of equipment she needed on before it gave way and Venom roared snarling down at her. 

Piper pulled an arrow and fired, a blast of fire covering Venoms face just long enough for her to power up the boots and blast off through the hole Venom had created. She took off, flying down the hall away from the beast that had been her friend. She had to get to her dad’s main lab if her plan was going to work. She just prayed they’d both survive it.


	42. Lab Rats

Piper touched down, stumbling a bit as she did. The lab she’d landed in was dark and quiet. She let out a shaking breath. 

“Ok Piper, think. There has to be a way to get that thing off of him without hurting him. The plan could work, but…” There was a noise in the closet to Piper’s left and she drew another incendiary arrow, knocking it into place. She carefully made her way to the door and kicked it in ready to fire at what was most likely to be the thing that had been her best friend. But she didn’t fire. Because instead of Venom she found a mass of limbs in bright costumes she recognized as her team. She pulled White Tiger off the top of the pile as the boys began to sort themselves out. 

“What the ever-loving hell are you guys doing here?” Nova’s helmeted head popped out from the bottom of the pile. 

“We were trying to help you! But the windows slammed shut and your invisible butler is anything but helpful.” Piper rolled her eyes and pulled Power Man to his feet letting Iron Fist flip to his. She held out a hand to Nova. He rolled his eyes but let her help him up. 

“Jarvis isn’t an invisible butler, he’s an AI system and he probably doesn’t recognize you. He’s not programed to help Costumes he doesn’t recognize.” Piper heard something and slapped a hand over Nova’s mouth. She grabbed a fire blanket from the shelf next to them and threw it over them motioning for the others to hide. A hissing shuffling sounded outside the door and a deep growl echoed through the room. A tense moment passed. Then Venom lumbered passed the hissing breaths continuing. Piper kept her hand over Nova’s mouth for another few tense breaths. Then she felt something warm and wet against her hand and jumped back shaking her hand in disgust. 

“Did you seriously just lick me?!” Nova shrugged slightly. 

“Works on my little sister.” Piper frowned, she hadn’t known he had a sister.

“Look whatever Fury sent you here to do I got this.” Piper could hear Ava’s frown. 

“Fury didn’t send us, this was Nova’s idea.” Piper frowned peeking out the door keeping a careful eye on the shadows waiting for one of them to start moving. 

“Why?” Nova shrugged glad that his helmet covered his blush.

“You looked like you were in trouble, and we’re a team. We help each other no matter what. Even if one of us has been acting like a total flake lately.” Piper flinched slightly as the others nodded. 

“The bucket’s right, you have been acting weird for a while, weirder than normal I mean.” Piper sighed, her shoulders sagging as she remembered everything that was going on and everything she had planned to do today. The usb drive was still in her bag back at school in her locker. Danny laid a hand on her shoulder. 

“You do not have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders Spider, share it and it will lighten.” Piper nodded slightly before glancing back out into the hallway. She sighed. 

“I can’t tell you everything now. Soon I promise but we need to stop Venom first.” Ava nodded. 

“Ok, who’s in there?” Piper made a face, she didn’t want to tell them but maybe Danny was right. 

“Harry. Harry Osborn.” The whole team winced. They all knew how close she and Harry were. Luke stepped forwards. 

“How do we stop him?” Piper shook her head. 

“That’s where things get difficult. The only weakness we know that Venom has is Electricity. I really don’t want to electrocute my best friend if I can avoid it. But it’s looking like that’s unavoidable. We need to get to my dad’s main lab. It’s two floors up from here. The stairs are all locked down as are the elevators. The quarantine protocol is supposed to keep floors isolated but the vents are still open between these three levels cause there’s no airborne pathogen. So, we can use those to get around, but not out. Nothing can get in or out of these three levels while the quarantine is in effect.” Ava nodded. 

“Do you have a map of this place, its huge.” Piper nodded and stepped over to one of the tables. She tapped a button on the underside and the table lit up Piper swiped a hand over it and an interface appeared hovering above the table. 

 

Danny had to say he was impressed. The team had been fighting together for about a month and a half now and Piper was already proving herself a born leader both in and out of costume. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew why she wasn’t in costume for this particular escapade. Sam was listing with more than he ever did when it was Fury or Coulson explaining a plan. He had a feeling that the hot head wasn’t even going to go off the rails like he had in his first mission as leader. That was until Piper mentioned splitting up.

“No way Webs! Splitting up is dumb.” Piper cut him off. 

“Listen Bucket Head. We go in groups. Ava you and Danny as one, me and Luke as the other. You and I are the only ones with long distance attacks and me and Ava are the only ones who can reprogram the equipment we need. Danny and Luke can punch through floors and walls, should we need it. Plus Venom is fixated on me, Luke is the least likely to get hurt when we run up against him.” Sam rolled his eyes as the others nodded. 

“Webs is right, it’s a smart plan.” Luke said stepping forwards. 

“I just hope we don’t hurt Harry.” The others nodded and the group split as hissing breathing came back down the hall. The sound of a spitting laugh and claws running along the walls echoed through the empty labs.


	43. Backfire

It had been a good plan it really had. But Piper had the sinking suspicion that Venom had overheard most or even all of it. The symbiote was a lot smarter than she’d given it credit for. It had followed her and Luke, which she counted as a positive. Luke was practically indestructible and better her than someone else had been her philosophy for a while now, not that anyone knew that. Venom roared as it punched Luke through several walls sending him sprawling. Piper drew a shock arrow and fired straight at Venom’s face as Luke pulled himself to his feet three rooms away.

Venom caught the arrow and Piper pressed the button on the bow that activated the hardware. The black monster shrieked as electricity coursed through it for a moment. The arrow snapped in its grip and the mass of black sludge roiled as the charge in the arrow was spent. 

“Harry, I know you’re in there. We’re gonna get you out I promise.” Venom lashed out and Piper didn’t quite dodge in time. Claws bit into her side and she went flying. Luke leapt just in time to catch her before she would have struck a wall. She swore as she felt something crawling around the wound. She flicked on the Widows Bite and punched herself in the side. She screamed as electricity coursed through her and Luke watched stunned as the small amount of symbiote that had been attempting to crawl into the wound on her side evaporated. Piper struggled to her feet as the claw marks in her side dripped blood. She was still shaking from her self-electrocution, Natasha’s Widow Bites packed more of a punch than she’d been expecting. Luke tossed her arm around his shoulder and ran, mostly carrying Piper away from Venom as it hissed then roared pulling itself back to its feet. Hopefully the others had reached the lab. 

Sam blasted the door off the lab and frowned. There had been nothing to get in their way as they made their way up two floors worth of vents. Not even a peep. This place was creepy, no matter how cool it was. It didn’t help that last time he’d been at Stark Tower he’d almost lost a team member. The image of Piper, sans costume, falling out the window of Stark Tower with a scream was not something he’d soon forget. There was no one in the lab when they reached it so Ava began to pull apart the bottom of the console Piper had told her about. Nova tapped his foot in mid-air. 

“They should be here by now.” Danny nodded. 

“I agree. Piper knows this place much better than we do.” There was a roar that shook the whole building and Sam and Danny froze, Ava was still frantically working under one of the tables. There was silence for a moment, ticking on it felt like forever. A scream echoed off the walls and Sam made to move for the door. Danny grabbed his foot. 

“The spider was very specific that we shouldn’t go after her. She knows what she’s doing.” Sam frowned. 

“Does she though?” The door to the lab burst open and Luke came barreling through supporting a nearly unconscious Piper. She looked up her eyes slightly glassy and Sam swore flying over to them and hesitating. The gash in her side was bag, a trail of blood lead the way they’d come and her shirt was trash. She shrugged herself off Luke’s arm and snatched a Bunsen burner off one of the tables, ignoring her injury she flipped to the top of a table and flicked the burner on at one of the sockets Sam hadn’t notices. An alarm blared and a set of metal doors descended, a large radioactive symbol on them, in front of both doors to the lab. Once they were in place Piper sighed and sat down hard on the table wobbling slightly. Sam swore getting a better look at her injuries in the red blaring lights. It was deep and singed around the edges. 

“Solo lab Quarantine. I wasn’t sure it would work since I’ve already isolated these three floors.” Luke nodded at her. 

“I’m not sure that’s gonna hold him though.” Piper nodded. 

“Probably not but it’ll buy us a few minutes.” She took a deep breath and hopped off the table swearing under her breath as she jostled her injury. Sam made to help her but she shook her head at him and ducked under the table with Ava. There was a few minutes of tense silence before the floor underneath them shook and the test tubes rattled. Another second of silence, then another boom. Several tubes fell to the floor and shattered. Then a different kind of boom sounded and Piper froze calling out from under the table where she and Ava were rewiring something, Sam hadn’t really understood her plan. 

“JARVIS! Was that a repulsor blast?” The AI’s voice was still not coming from a source Sam could find. 

“Yes Miss Parker. The Avengers are attempting to breach the quarantine protocol.” Piper swore and moved again a litany of curses in different languages floating out from under it.

“Put me through to Dad now!” Sam was about to protest when a staticky voice he recognized from their field trip not even a week ago came over the speakers. 

“Piper! Are you ok! We’re trying to get in.” Piper swore as she moved again. 

“NO! Whatever you do, do not break the quarantine, if you do this thing gets loose and the whole city is in danger.” The response was almost immediate. 

“What thing!?” Piper swore as a shower of sparks forced Ava out from under the console. 

“The thing from Harry’s party is back. I don’t know what it is, it calls itself Venom.” There was an angry gasp over the speakers. 

“I’m gonna vaporize it!” Piper stuck two wires together with a frown. 

“No! You can’t! There’s a person in that thing. I have a plan.” The floor shook again and this time it cracked and the black mass that was Venom began to seep through tearing off chunks of the floor as it went. 

“Piper, don’t you dare take this thing on alone.” Sam swore and grabbed Luke and Danny off the floor as it began to collapse under them. 

“Who said I was alone?” Her grin was strained as she connected the last two wires.

“Tiger! The jump cables we need, in that cabinet!” Ava leapt from table to table trying to evade the sea of wriggling blackness that was tearing the floor apart in the middle of the room. She barely made it to the top of the cabinet ripping the door off and grabbing two long jumper cables and throwing them across the room to Piper as Tony Star continued to freak out over the speakers and the alarm kept blaring. Piper dove back under the console as with a triumphant roar Venom pulled itself into the room and the repulsor fire grew louder and more concentrated. Sam shot a blast at Venom but the large creature wasn’t paying him any attention. Instead it grabbed Piper by her legs and yanked pulling her out from under the console with a surprised cry. Tony shouted over the speakers but Piper wasn’t listening. Sam spotted the jumper cables connected to the base of the devices around Piper’s wrists. 

“Give him back you son of a bitch!” Piper shouted as she drove her fists into Venom’s arms activating the Widow’s Bite as she did. 

Lightning arced around the room as Venom shrieked and bubbled. A much more feminine scream of pain sounded under the inhuman screech and Sam made to lunge forwards but another arch of lightning stopped him. Then the black mass evaporated and the lighting stopped the lights in the lab had gone out. The sound of rending metal was horrible and each of them clapped their hands to their ears as the quarantine wall to their left was torn apart like it was made of wrapping paper. A large green angry figure stood there seemingly ready to rip anything that displeased him apart like he had the wall. Light poured in and the team finally spotted Piper. She was laying bleeding on the floor out cold. Harry Osborn had landed next to her, he was starting to stir. A flash of red and gold flew past the Hulk and landed next to Piper. His hands hovered over her wounds for a moment before he turned to the Hulk. 

“Big guy, I know you’re upset but she need’s Bruce right now.” The Hulk huffed and looked like he was going to roar again but then he spotted the blood pooling under Piper. He whimpered and began to shrink. Moments later Bruce Banner was standing shirtless holding his torn pants in one hand blinking slightly before spotting Piper and rushing forwards. He shoved Tony out of the way to check over his patient. Danny made to step forwards to explain what he could but a hand landed on his shoulder and he looked up into the face of the Black Widow. She shook her head at him.

“You can tell us what happened later. They need to focus right now.” Danny nodded. There was a noise at the hole the Hulk had made and seconds later Hawkeye was rushing in closely followed by Thor carrying Captain America. The team would have been star struck under better circumstances. There was a groan and Harry sat up rubbing his head. 

“What happened?” He looked around blinking confusedly for a moment before he spotted Piper and choked out a scream. Hawkeye grabbed him by the shoulder before he could make it to her. Harry was shaking from head to toe. 

“I didn’t do that did I?” A voice came from the hole in the wall. 

“We’ll figure it out son, for the moment you need to come with me.” Everyone save Bruce and Tony turned to the voice and saw Nick Fury standing in the debris.


	44. Aftermath

There was a moments confused silence before a groan broke the tension caused by the arrival of the SHEILD director himself. All eyes in the room turned to Piper who stirred, her eyes flickered open. The normally clear blue was glassy and out of focus. She tried to move and groaned. Bruce laid a hand on her shoulder. 

“Stay still. You got hit bad Piper. What happened?” She didn’t seem to hear him. Instead she groaned again and tried to sit up.

“ ‘arry. Where’s Harry?” Clint let go of Harry’s arm. The boy clumsily raced forwards and knelt at Piper’s side.

“I’m here. Piper you need to listen to Dr. Banner, you’re hurt. Oh god, is she gonna be ok?” This time he was talking to Bruce. Before the doctor could answer Piper moved again groaning as she did. Her hand came to rest on his and he shuddered at the warm blood that dripped onto his skin from hers.

“Are you ok?” Harry nodded brushing a strand of hair out of Pipers face, for once not caring that her father was standing right next to them. She smiled at him and her eyes slipped closed, her hand going alarmingly limp in his. He sat there stunned for a moment before Dr. Banner called out to Captain America.

“Steve! Get over here now! We need to get her to medical, now!” Captain America, still in full uniform pushed gently passed Harry and scooped Piper up racing out of the room as Jarvis lifted the quarantine. Harry stared after them for a minute before someone gently laid a hand on his shoulder. He looked up into Nick Fury’s one good eye. 

“You cant do anything for her right now. But we can make sure that Venom is really gone this time. Harry nodded dumbly looking back over at the door Piper had just been carried through. Fury guided him to his feet and helped him over to the hole in the wall where a SHEILD craft was hovering, medical personnel waiting inside it. Once Harry was in their capable hands Fury turned to the team. 

“You dumbasses went off the res. You are in so much trouble tonight. You’re gonna be running drills for a month straight.” Tony stepped forwards. 

“Wait, these are yours?” He said angrily gesturing at the group of teen heroes. Fury nodded. 

“Yes. And they were supposed to be doing a simple patrol of the area, not messing with things way too strong for them.” Fury was lying, the teens knew that but it wasn’t like they would tell Iron Man that. Iron Fist stepped forwards and bowed. 

“My apologies Director Fury but we saw what was happening and decided to lend our assistance.” White Tiger piped up from where she stood slightly behind Luke. 

“To be fair it was Nova’s idea.” Tony raised an eyebrow.

“Which one of you is Nova?” There was silence for a moment before Nova tentatively raised his hand. Tony stepped over to him and looked him up and down for a moment before holding out his hand to shake. Nova stared at it dumbly for a moment before Powerman elbowed him in the side and he reached out and took it shaking it. 

“I’m glad she wasn’t alone. Thank you. You got potential kid, if SHIELD ever gets too shady for you give me a call.” Tony turned and the armor folded off of him and Nova saw that the tremor he’d felt wasn’t from the armor. Tony was shaking. He fumbled a phone out of his pocket and hit a button before putting it up to his ear. 

“Pepper, I need you at the tower. Please hurry.” There was a pause. 

“It’s Piper, she’s hurt.” Another pause.

“You figured? How? What do you mean check the news?” Tony walked out of the room quickly and Natasha, Clint, Thor and Nick Fury were the only ones left in the room. The SHIELD ship with Harry in it had already taken off. Clint spoke for the first time, his voice was shaking slightly.

“What the hell happened here? Someone tell me before I shoot something!” The teens pieced together what they could but they knew they didn’t know the whole story. The only person who knew for sure was Piper and she was in no condition to talk to anyone right now. Clint nodded at them as they finished. 

“Alright.” With that he stomped off out of the room. The Widow sighed. 

“Thank you for helping her. We do appreciate it.” With that she followed Clint out of the room. Fury sighed and motioned the team forwards. A second SHIELD craft landed at the hole in the wall and they boarded the jet. The ride back to the Helicarrier was silent. When they landed they all lined up on the bridge waiting for Fury to dole out their punishment. Fury sighed. 

“I gotta say I wasn’t expecting her to be this good of an influence on you lot this fast.” They all frowned looking at each other confused. 

“I’m sorry sir, I don’t understand. Aren’t we in trouble?” Fury shook his head. 

“Yes, but only because none of you called to report what you were doing. What you did, going after her, it was the right thing to do. You did good. Now go get some rest, it’s been a hell of a day. I have to clean up the mess.” Nova stepped forwards.

“Um sir, I’ve been wondering. Something Mr. Stark said before he left the room, something about checking the new? What was he talking about?” Fury sighed again. He turned to one of the consoles and tapped a few keys pulling up and unmuting the bugle news.

“Shock rocks through New York today as a years old rumor comes to light about one of our local heroes! Tony Stark has a child!” An image of Piper flying away from Venom, her face was in shadow but the gloves and boots were clearly visible. 

“Who is this mystery teen! Where has he been hiding her all these years!? Who’s the mother!? More of this at ten!” Fury closed the news and turned back to the teens. 

“There’s gonna be a lot of backlash from this, get some sleep. You’ll need it.” They nodded and walked out of the bridge off towards their respective rooms. 

Tony paced back and forth in the waiting room of the medical wing in Stark Tower. Any sound from the room within was drowned out by the sound of construction from two floors below them. The tower would be fixed soon enough but there was a mob of press waiting outside for a statement about what had happened. Natasha had popped by and explained what little the teen team had known about the situation but that hadn’t been much. SHEILD had whisked Harry Osborn off and that meant he was most definitely involved in all this. Pepper was on the phone putting out fires with the PR department but her hands were shaking too bad to use her Stark Pad properly so Natasha was helping her with that. The Russian would occasionally glance up at the door to the operating room but never spoke or moved other than that. According to JARVIS Clint was in the firing range with Thor destroying the place, it was self repairing anyway and if Tony hadn’t been so worried he would have joined them. But he couldn’t focus on anything but the image of his daughter’s face. Blood flecked on her face her lip split and the gashes in her side. He shuddered as Pepper stood finally hanging up the phone. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close for a moment. He felt himself sob into her hair.


	45. Consequences

Harry sat in the room the medical personnel had dropped him off in staring at his hands. Piper’s blood had dried on his hand, he was beginning to wonder if he’d ever get rid of that feeling. There was a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and a bottle of water sat in front of him on the table. He hadn’t moved since he’d been told to wait here. What had he done? He couldn’t remember anything after Piper had used some of her dads tech to blast Venom, him he supposed, off his feet and brought the roof of the closet in on his head. He vaguely remembered hearing Piper say something, then pain and he was waking up next to her. He’d told the Agent who’d come in to question him that, she’d been nice. Agent Hill she’d called herself. She’d left him the water bottle. He sniffled and tears fell from his eyes. He heard something going on out in the hallway and a med tech slipped into the room and smiled at him slightly. 

“Hello Mr. Osborn. My name is Penny and I need to take a blood sample. We want to make sure the parasite that took you over is completely gone.” Harry nodded. So they were calling Venom a parasite, he couldn’t think of a more appropriate name. The tech had him hold out his arm and gently drew some blood before smiling slightly and laying a hand on his shoulder. 

“Are you feeling alright Mr. Osborn? Do you need anything?” Harry couldn’t bring himself to shake his head. He wasn’t ok. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be ok. He’d hurt Piper. The parasite, they symbiote, Venom, whatever they wanted to call it, it had made him hurt her. He wanted to bury his head in his hands but he couldn’t, he still had her blood on his hands. The med tech grabbed an antibacterial wipe from her kit and began to wipe his hand clean. She smiled at him when she was done her black hair falling into her eyes slightly. Harry didn’t manage to smile back. 

Bruce sighed and pulled off his rubber gloves. He tossed them into the biohazard trash can. You could never be too careful when it came to those with radioactive blood. They’d have to sanitize that whole lab or risk possible radiation poisoning. He made a note to himself to have JARVIS sanitize it as soon as possible. He looked back over at the bed in the room and sighed again. Steve laid a hand on his shoulder, he was wearing scrubs over his uniform, it made for an interesting sight. Bruce would have laughed if it hadn’t been for the circumstances. The monitor beeped away slowly.

“We need to let the others know.” Steve said pulling off the scrubs and depositing them in the same trash can Bruce had put his gloves in. He looked down at the blood on his uniform and frowned. Bruce cleared his throat.

“You’re gonna want that sanitized, radioactive blood doesn’t come out easily.” Steve managed a small smile. 

“Go let them in.” Steve nodded at the doctor and left. Bruce adjusted the oxygen mask slightly. 

 

Eddie frowned. He tried again. Again the phone rang through. He swore under his breath and tried again. This time he heard something. Piper’s ringtone was obnoxious, he’d told her that the other day when she’d gotten a call while they were working on his computer. It was a loud slightly shrill pop song, her excuse had been that she never missed a call with a ringtone like that. He pulled his phone away from his ear and listened. He followed the song to Piper’s locker. It was just in front of the currently roped off area where the fight had gone down. The whole school was going nuts. First a rumor was spread like wildfire that Spider-girl went here, now Tony Stark had a child and she went here too. Eddie was starting to wonder how much of that was coincidence. He spun in Piper’s locker combination and stared at her backpack for a minute. It had to have been her flying off then, she never left her backpack anywhere. He snagged it and spotted something sticking out the corner. He frowned, why would Piper have a red shirt in her bag. He paused for a moment before curiosity got the better of him. He looked around for a minute, he was alone in the hallway. Then he tugged on the tiny corner of red fabric. He dropped her backpack in surprise as it finally came free for what he now realized was a secret compartment in Piper’s backpack. He stared down at the mask in his hands the white eyes staring back up at him. Spider-girl’s mask stared up at him. He suddenly found it very hard to breathe. He had to find her as fast as he could.

Mary Jane was panicking. She couldn’t get ahold of anyone. Harry’s phone was going straight to voice mail and Piper’s was ringing through every time. She wrung her hands. They had been in the closet, the one that had been torn apart from the inside. They had to be ok though, they just had to be. She tried Piper again. This time she heard her obnoxious ringtone sounding around the corner. She raced around it and found Eddie with his back to her.

“Eddie!” He jumped nearly a foot into her air and stuffed something in his jacket pocket as he turned. He was holding Piper’s bag. MJ frowned. 

“No sign of them?” Eddie shook his head. 

“No but I think we both know where they went. But I don’t have a passcode to get in.” MJ frowned. 

“I do though but no ride.” Eddie nodded. 

“I have a spare helmet, think we could make it through the throngs of press that have likely gathered around the building.” MJ grinned. 

“I know one of Piper’s private entrances it’s about three blocks away from the tower itself. We should be able to make it.” Eddie smiled and zipped up his pocket.

“Come on then, let’s go make sure our idiot friends are ok.” MJ nodded and grabbed his hand leading him out of the school.


	46. Wake Up Call

Tony’s head shot up from his hands as the door to the medical wing opened. Steve stepped out. The normally white star on his uniform was stained red with Piper’s blood, his smile was slightly strained. The air in the room was tense for a moment.

“Bruce says you can go in.” Tony ran past Steve, Pepper hot on his heels. Natasha made to lay a hand on Steve’s shoulder but he shook his head.

“Better safe than sorry, radioactive blood and all. I’m gonna go toss this in the Hazmat Laundry and take a shower. I’ll let Thor and Hawkeye know its ok to visit on my way.” Natasha nodded and slipped into the room.

Tony had taken over the main seat in the room, Pepper hovering behind his chair. Bruce stood to one side fiddling with a monitor. On the bed lay a pale sleeping teenager, her hair was a mess, though short it fell onto the pillow around her head. An oxygen mask covered her mouth and nose periodically fogging up with her breath. Her arms lay on top of the blanket showing heavily bandaged wrists. Natasha stepped over to Bruce. 

“How is she?” Bruce sighed lightly. 

“She’s going to be alright. The slashes on her side were deep. There were three of them, nearly fourty stiches on the middle one, twenty each in the other two.” He leaned down slightly and whispered in Natasha’s ear. 

“Tony shouldn’t hear this but if she didn’t heal like she does…” Bruce left it hanging as Tony reached out to take his daughter’s hand. 

“You shouldn’t move her wrists. They are pretty badly burned.” Tony nodded, settling for laying his fingers over Piper’s. There was a gentle knock at the door. James Rhodes stuck his head into the room. 

“Hey. Heard what happened, can I come in?” Tony nodded as Natasha slipped out of the room. Rhodey strode in and motioned to the door. Mary Jane Watson and Eddie Brock stuck their heads in. MJ clapped a hand over her mouth. Tears built in her eyes. Pepper stepped forwards and herded the teens back into the waiting room. Rhodey frowned. 

“I’m sorry, I found them arguing with JARVIS in the garage. He had her backpack, I knew MJ. Thought she might appreciate some friends. I can see how that could be a bit of a bad move right now.” Rhodey rubbed the back of his neck. Tony shook his head.

“Nah. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.” Rhodey nodded. 

“She’s gonna be ok?” Tony nodded. Rhodey smiled. 

“Good, you need to get looked over too.” Tony looked down at his hands. He was a bit scratched up from the fight the Avengers had been in before JARVIS informed him what was happening at home. The fight had been almost over anyway so Tony left the others to finish up and raced back home. He sat back in the arm chair in Piper’s medical room. Rhodey sat down on one of the arm rests. He set a hand on Tony’s shoulder. 

“She’s gonna be ok.” Tony nodded and sighed. 

“I never wanted her to be in this kind of danger.” Rhodey nodded.

“No one knows what that thing, Venom was. I’ve got some feelers out, looking out for any information about what it could have been. No words yet. Hammer Corps released a statement that it’s not theirs. Oscorp’s claiming that they have no idea where its from.” Tony snorted. 

“Yeah right. Osborn’s son was inside that thing! My ass they have nothing to do with it.” Rhodey’s eyebrow climbed up his forehead. 

“You really think Harry Osborn would willingly hurt Piper? He’s been head over heels for her for nearly three years, since before you even met the kid.” Tony scoffed. 

“Teenage crushes don’t mean…” Rhodey cut him off. 

“You don’t see the way he looks at her. He looks at her like you look at Pepper when you think no ones looking.” Tony froze. He looked up at Rhodey. 

“You know?” Rhodey laughed. A third voice sounded in the room. 

“Everyone but Pepper knows. You’re not slick dad.” Tony leapt to his feet. Piper’s eyes, bright blue once again, were open. She looked tired but smiled slightly.


	47. Confrontation

Tears sprang into Tony’s eyes, his hands were shaking. Piper coughed and Bruce piped up from where he stood next to the monitors. 

“Hey kiddo, how are you feeling?” Piper frowned and coughed again. 

“A bit woozy. And my head is killing me.” She sniffled and Bruce frowned. He laid a hand on her forehead and shook his head. 

“You did all that with a cold?” Piper smiled sheepishly before nodding. Bruce shook his head and stepped over to one of the medicine cabinets. Tony gently wrapped his hand around Piper’s fingers. 

“Hey Pipes.” Piper smiled slightly, sniffling again. 

“Hi dad.” There was a slightly awkward pause before Piper coughed and spoke again.

“How bad did I screw up?” Tony shook his head.   
“You didn’t, you saved the Osborn brat. SHEILD took him to the Helicarrier. I’ll bug Fury about him for you later ok?” Piper nodded before looking around the room and swearing slightly.

“Hey, language kid.” Rhodey said his smile giving him away. Piper tried to sit up but Tony laid a hand on her shoulder.

“What are you looking for?” It took her a minute to speak. 

“Backpack. Where’s my backpack?” Tony glanced up at the door and Rhodey took the hint and quick stepped over to the door. 

“Hey Blondie, come here for a second. MJ you can see her in a minute ok. Where’s her backpack?” Piper frowned at Tony. 

“Blondie?” Tony surpressed a laugh. 

“Your buddie Eddie.” Piper tried to sit up again.

“He needs to be in here for this too.” Tony was about to protest but Piper shot him a slightly glazed set of puppy dog eyes and he relented. 

“But just him for the moment, we don’t need you getting too excited ok?” Piper paused but relented and Rhodey let Eddie into the room. 

Eddie couldn’t help but think that Piper looked like shit. She was pale, like a sheet of wax paper, and her eyes were glassy bit determined. He smiled, it was only slightly forced. Too much had been going on in the past few weeks. He still had her mask, Spider-girl’s mask in his pocket. The lightweight fabric felt like a boulder sitting in his jacket. But she smiled back as he held up her backpack. Tony was standing next to her one hand on her shoulder keeping her from sitting up. She coughed and held out a hand for her bag. He tried to hand it over but her hands were shaking so bad she almost dropped it. She let out a frustrated noise and coughed loudly. 

“What do you need out of your bag Pipes?” Tony asked gently. 

“USB. Front pocket.” Eddie’s eyes went wide, that would explain why she’d wanted him in the room too. He fished in her bag and pulled out the SHEILD usb. Tony and Rhodey stared as Bruce made his way around them adding something to the drip attached to Piper’s arm. 

“Where did you get that Piper?” Rhodey asked in a hushed tone. Piper sniffled and began to explain. It took nearly twenty minutes to explain everything but she managed it, Eddie helping fill in bits and pieces here and there where he could. He handed the usb over to Tony who nodded slightly. 

“I couldn’t decrypt it. We thought maybe you’d have better luck.” Tony nodded, flinching slightly before rubbing his neck like it was hurting him. Bruce stepped over to him. 

“I need to take a look at you too Tony. I know you pulled something during that fight, we need to know how bad it was.” Piper frowned. 

“You’re hurt?” Tony shook his head looking at Bruce admonishingly. 

“I’ll be fine Piper. I’m gonna go have Bruce check me out right now. Rhodey, keep an eye on her ok?” Rhodey nodded. Tony and Bruce stepped out of the room and Eddie was left alone with one of Piper’s ‘uncles’. Rhodey grinned slightly. 

“Thanks for being there for her no matter what. Don’t tell Tony but I’m gonna give you two a minute, you look like you have something to say to her. But no funny business. JARVIS will let me know.” Eddie nodded and Rhodey headed back out into the waiting area. Eddie took a deep breath and sat down in the arm chair next to Piper’s bed. She smiled at him. 

“I’m glad we decided to tell dad.” Eddie nodded. 

“Me too, keeping secrets can’t be easy.” Piper nodded and they were quiet for another second. Eddie cleared his throat and spoke. 

“You know you can tell me anything right Piper? Anything at all…” Piper frowned slightly but nodded, she wasn’t looking at him though. Eddie carefully laid a hand on hers. 

“I’m serious Piper. You can tell me absolutely anything. You don’t have to keep secrets, not from me. You know that right?” Piper’s frown deepened. 

“Secrets keep people safe.” It was barely a whisper. He almost missed it but shook his head when he realized what she’d said. 

“No they don’t, they tear you apart from the inside. Especially if you’re keeping them alone.” A tear slipped down Piper’s face. Eddie reached into his pocket and pulled out her mask. He placed it in her hand gently. 

“You’re not alone anymore Pipes.” Piper sniffled and shook her head. 

“No… I never wanted to drag you into all this. I didn’t want to drag anyone into this. You can’t have found out. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Eddie shook his head. 

“I’ll be ok Piper, I promise. You get better and we’ll talk ok?” Piper nodded slightly before opening her hand slightly. 

“Can you put it back in my bag. Dad doesn’t know. Dad cant know, ever.” Eddie nodded and put her mask back in her bag. She smiled at him. 

“You know you’re gonna have to tell me how it happened one of these days right?” Piper laughed slightly. There was a knock at the door and Pepper stuck her head in. She smiled and Piper waved without lifting her wrist off the bed. Pepper let MJ into the room and the redhead had to hold herself back from tackle hugging Piper. They talked for a while until Bruce came back and shooed them out of the room so Piper could get some sleep.


	48. The Press

Tony wanted nothing more than to go back to his daughters room in the medical wing and fuss over her until she got better but as Pepper pointed out to him as he and Bruce left Piper’s room that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, and in the meantime there was a very large crowd of reporters waiting outside for a statement. For once they weren’t waiting for news about the mission the Avengers had left on though. Tony frowned as Bruce patched up his scrapes and slapped a therma-care on his sore neck. The inventor was busy flicking through news channels. Nearly all of them had something to say about ‘Iron Lass’ as they were calling her. Tony swore lightly and rubbed his temple. Bruce dropped two Tylenol in his hand and pointed to a water bottle on the counter before heading back to Piper’s room. Tony downed the pills and took a deep breath. The reporters could wait another five minutes. 

He went back to his room and changed clothes. When he opened his door he swore. Natasha was standing there in a black pants suit her hair looking perfect and determination in her eyes. He looked her up and down before raising an eyebrow. 

“Natasha, what are you doing?” She looked at him condescendingly. 

“Helping you. I know what you’re like with reporters and if you pull another ‘I am Iron Man’ today I will have to kill you as a favor to my favorite niece.” Her smile was sweet but deadly. Tony shuffled back a step.

“What do you mean?” Natasha rolled her eyes. 

“You can’t keep your mouth shut when it matters Tony. Not about things like this. You can’t go telling everyone that she’s your child. Not yet. She’s not ready for that.” Tony nodded. Natasha was right, Piper had been through enough in the past few days. She followed him down to the front doors of the tower. 

The reporters turned to the doors as they opened. Tony Stark stepped out of the building, followed closely by Natasha. They gathered in a close circle around the slightly bruised Stark. He sighed and cleared his throat as cameras began to flash. 

“I’m sure you have all heard or created different versions of the events that took place here at Stark Tower less than two hours ago. At present we do not know what the creature that attacked was, only that it referred to itself as Venom. The creature has been destroyed. I will now take a couple of questions from the crowd.” A tall shapely blonde woman raised her hand and Tony nodded at her. 

“Is it true that the girl seen flying into one of the upper floors of Stark Tower using your technology is in fact your child?” Tony sighed, Natasha glared at him. He took a deep breath. 

“At this time I can not confirm or deny any of the rumors that have been circulating for years about me having a child.” Natasha sighed to herself, good he hadn’t done anything stupid. She should have known it was too soon to say that. 

“However if it were true, I would have kept it from the general populace so my kid could keep her life normal. Instead of being hounded by press at every corner! So yeah the thing that attacked is gone, talk to SHEILD if you wanna know more. No more questions.” Cameras flashed as Natasha slapped her hand to her forehead and slowly massaged her temple. She really should have seen this coming. 

Norman Osborn was furious. Venom had been under his nose the whole time, his own son playing host to the symbiote. How had he missed it? He clicked off the tv. Stark was an idiot, he had basically outed his daughter without ever mentioning her name. He straightened his tie and looked down at his phone. SHEILD had called him ten minutes ago letting him know where his son was and that he would be staying on SHEILD property overnight as a precaution. No one else knew what had happened at Stark tower, only the Avengers, Fury’s little team and Piper Parker. 

Piper was a sweet girl, and smart as a whip, but he doubted that she would connect Venom to him. There was nothing to connect it to him, save that Harry had been its host. The Spiderman. His son had been the Spiderman. He steepled his fingers in front of his face. The symbiote was out of his reach once more, but he couldn’t help but think that maybe that wasn’t forever. He sighed and picked up his phone again. He needed to make sure no one else found out about Harry’s extra-curricular activities. 

Tony was back in his lab staring at the usb in his hand. He flipped it over again and again. The secret to why Richard and Mary had left Piper with her aunt and uncle were on this usb. The reason why they’d died, and maybe evidence enough to put away their killer for life. It was quite the responsibility. He sighed and plugged the usb in. 

“JARVIS, keep this on my private servers, and keep it under my encryptions for now. I need to go check on Piper.” 

“Of course Mr. Stark.” Tony stood and left. 

When Tony returned to Piper’s room in the medical wing Bruce was checking her temperature. He smiled and nodded at Tony. Piper was sound asleep. MJ was still in the waiting room with curled up on a chair, Pepper sitting next to her. Tony smiled at his daughter. Bruce stepped over to him. 

“She’s gonna be fine Tony. She had a cold when all this began. I wanted to make sure the antibiotic was knocking it out.” Tony nodded and smiled at his friend. 

“Thanks Bruce.” Tony placed a hand on MJ’s shoulder as he stepped out into the waiting room. She looked up at him and smiled at him. 

“You should call your mom and let her know you’re here and alright.” MJ nodded and pulled out her phone. Tony smiled and stepped back into Piper’s room.


	49. Back On Their Feet

Tony kept Piper out of school for a week, MJ, Eddie and Sam brought her homework nearly every day. That was an interesting conversation when Sam showed up in the lobby of Stark Tower with a bag of books and chocolate. Tony had hovered throughout his entire visit, with no clue that this was the same kid he’d nearly offered a job the other day after finding out he had saved his daughter. Piper laughed her head off when he showed up looking scared and explaining that Eddie had been called out by the Bugle and that MJ had begged to come with him so they’d asked him to take her the work for the day. She’d had a smile on her face for the rest of the day. Tony had wanted her to stay home longer but she was fully healed, not that he knew that, he thought she was still recovering, he didn’t know about her accelerated healing. But Pepper had diverted him for long enough for Piper to slip out and into the black Audi Natasha had decided she was driving today. Piper wouldn’t be surprised if it never moved from the parking lot. The school was clean and there was a new wall around the janitors closet near Piper’s locker. Eddie spotted her and grinned slipping up to her locker. 

“Hey you! How’s the cold?” Piper grinned, Eddie had come up with that idea and Piper had tackle hugged him when he’d made it. She was so sure she was going to be completely outed after this incident. The press was still trying to figure out the mystery of the ‘Iron Lass’ but so far Pepper had put out the fires and kept the real press off her back. The National Inquierer had claimed that she was the illicit love child of Iron Man and the Black Widow. The Weekly World News said she was actually Captain America’s kid with Pepper. The Onion had said she was a lab experiment, made from samples of all the really attractive people and his own stem cells so he could have an attractive smart baby. That was her favorite of the theories so far. Sam had brought a bunch of them with him so he could read them to her in her med center room. 

She’d decided after that that it was a good idea to tell the team what was actually going on but only after swearing them to secrecy. Tiger had been a bit apprehensive but upon hearing the full story became fiercely protective and behind her cause but wouldn’t explain why. The others had rallied behind her as well and they were all still talking about what could be on that flash drive. Tony was still decoding it, her parents had been so intelligent. Tony was having too much fun trying to decode it. 

“Feeling much better actually.” They passed by Principle Coulson’s office the man peered out from behind the curtain and sighed. He turned back to the man sitting in the chair across from his desk.

“I honestly have no idea Director Fury. She’s different than the other teens. I gotta say that’s probably because of her adoptive father, she’s getting the others to act more like kids out of uniform and more like heroes on the streets. I’m still not sure she’d the best leader for the team though. I still think Danny might be better.” Director Fury shook his head.

“She’s good for the team. They aren’t soldiers, their children. We knew that when we took them on. But they were becoming soldiers, too fast. They need to be kids while they still can, she reminds them of that. But she also reminds them that you get hit you get back up.” Coulson nodded slightly as he took his seat in the office across from his boss. He pulled out a folder. 

“So about that budget.” 

Harry Osborne was still out of school, a tutor had been visiting for the past week with his homework. MJ had tried to come visit but his father had denied anyone entrance for a while. He’d been checked over by so many doctors that he couldn’t count them anymore. No one would even tell him what they were looking for. SHEILD had given him a clean bill of health but sometimes at night he would wake up in a cold sweat, terrified of every shadow. One of the doctors had prescribed him an anti psychotic, another had suggested an anti anxiety medication. Norman Osborn threw the prescriptions out, Osborn’s don’t need this kind of thing. Osborn’s aren’t anxious, Osborn’s aren’t psychotic. Osborn’s don’t do things wrong. According to the press Harry had been out of school because Norman was concerned about his safety at public school for now. Harry had no word on when or even if he would be going back. He didn’t have a phone anymore, well not one that wasn’t being monitored every minute, same with his computer. But he hadn’t used them anyway. He wanted to talk to Piper, desperately wanted to explain his actions… but he couldn’t. He couldn’t tell her that the symbiote had blown his feelings for her into something obsessive, something dark, something toxic. He couldn’t tell her that he still loved her, he couldn’t face her, he had hurt her. He couldn’t face her. He wondered if he’d ever get the chance to talk to her face to face again as he deleted his latest try at an email to her. 

Piper whooped as she dove through the clear night air. Sam laughed as he circled and they raced around the block. Piper landed hard on the roof rolling back to her feet in an instant and sending a webline to the next roof, landing in front of the robber. He dropped the bag and tried to take a swing at her but she caught his fist and twisted forcing his arm up his back and webbing it to his back before sticking his other hand to his back. She tossed him to Nova who caught him deftly and held him by his feet recommending that he didn’t struggle as Piper scooped up the bag and tapped her com watch. 

“We got ours!” Luke laughed holding up the other robber who looked out cold by his shoulder.

“Got him!” Piper smiled.

“Alright! Back to the bank then.” Luke nodded and hung up. They got back about ten minutes later leaving the robbers for the police, this was a bit below SHEILD’s paygrade. Then they dropped by Delmar’s for snacks. Mr. Delmar was ecstatic that the Heroes of New York, as he’d taken to calling them, were patrons of his, he insisted as always that they could have whatever they wanted, no cost. Piper left him one fifty this time. 

The five of them sat on a roof about a mile away from the deli. White tiger was sipping her icee, grinning at the dime store novel she’d found. Luke was enjoying one of the biggest sandwiches Piper had ever seen Mr. Delmar make, Danny had stuck with his salad and M and Ms. Piper and Sam had gotten brownies and sandwiches and coke. Piper had been incensed to discover that Ava preferred Pepsi. Danny didn’t drink soda, Luke liked energy drinks and coffee. Piper held up her cup to Sam. 

“We didn’t do too bad tonight huh?” Sam thought. They had stopped two breaking and entering’s, foiled three bank robberies, two jewelry store heists, and stopped six muggings. He clinked his cup against hers and grinned. 

“Yeah not too bad at all Webs.” She grinned, her mask pulled up so her nose and mouth were visible. They still had so much to do but they were doing so well as a team, as friends. They sipped their cokes and looked out over their city, Piper couldn’t help but feel they were going to be ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this one. If I get feedback on it I'll post the sequel, which is not finished.


End file.
